Chapter 10

"Total! Take Akila! Run!" Nudge yelled.

The two dashed away, Akila right behind Total.

"What's happening?" Iggy asked tensely.

She said hurriedly, "Flyboys, but new ones. Different, smaller than before, around your size, maybe bigger. Look better at flying."

"How many?" he asked, opening his wings.

"Er, twenty maybe?"

"You go left, I'll go right. Let's go."

Nudge squeezed his elbow and then rocketed into the air alongside him, veering to the left as soon as they were in the new and improved Flyboys' line of vision. Just as they planned, half went after Nudge, and half went after Iggy.

Dread circled through Nudge's mind. It was two against twenty. She didn't like the odds. The new Flyboys were almost as fast as her, and she needed a plan to get rid of them.

She dove back down into the trees. She tipped her wings so she could weave through them, hoping the Flyboys wouldn't be able to dodge the trees as well as her. She increased her speed, doing sharp turns every few seconds, but the Flyboys were always a few feet behind.

After what felt like a hundred turns, Nudge was beginning to tire, and her turns were getting sloppier, while the Flyboys' turns were still quick and precise. They were steadily catching up to her.

What am I going to do? They're catching up! What would Max do? What would she do? Why isn't she here to help me? Augh! I gotta throw 'em off, gotta throw 'em off, gotta throw 'em off, she thought, beginning to panic.

She entered a dense section of trees, where she barely had flying room, going as fast as she could. She abruptly did an extremely tight hairpin turn, smashing her left wing into a tree. Zooming up through the canopy and back up into the sky, she heard a series of violent crashes as some of the Flyboys smacked into the trees and into each other.

Three Flyboys managed to avoid the accident and flew up after her. A current of lightning-like pain spider-webbed its way through her left wing, but she tried to block the pain out of her mind. She rocketed straight up with the three in pursuit.

She was gaining altitude fast, and she went straight through a puffy-looking white cloud, out of the Flyboys' vision for a precious second. Drenched in cloud moisture, she dropped back down through the cloud, smashing both feet into one of the Flyboys' faces.

He began to fall toward the ground past the other two, but Nudge wasn't ready to let him go yet. Avoiding the other two, she swooped toward the down-falling body and powerfully caught it under the arms. One of the Flyboys had been about to dive-bomb Nudge when she swung the first Flyboy up at him and swiftly dodged their tangled, falling masses.

The last Flyboy came at her, ready to claw her insides out. Moisture from the cloud beaded with the sweat on her forehead as she tried to formulate another plan of attack while shooting across the sky.

She quickly turned to face him, looking as if she were about to surrender. The Flyboy lunged ferociously at her torso, but she did a quick arc over his head and grabbed his wings, smashing them together behind his back painfully. He began to drop rapidly, but she gave a crushing blow to his head for good measure.

She breathed a strained sigh of relief as she watched the body crumple when it came into the contact with the ground. She turned around, wanting to go check and see if the others were okay, but an ominous dark cloud was rising up out of the trees.

It was the other seven Flyboys she had thought she had gotten rid of.

They were coming at her at full speed, looking even more vicious than before.

A sudden giant explosion went off nearby, temporarily blinding Nudge and shocking her eardrums. She threw her hands over her ears as she fell a few feet through the air yelling, "OH MY FREAKING GOSH!"

She caught herself and rose back up in the air, knowing that the explosion would have shattered the brain of a normal person.

Iggy, she thought, looking around but not seeing him.

He had set off another one of his bombs. She hoped he was okay and had gotten rid of all his Flyboys, because she didn't know if she could take on these seven, especially with her hurt wing. She flew in confusing crisscross patterns, taking an occasional dive through the trees or bursting up through a wet cloud, but she couldn't keep it up much longer.

Where the heck is Iggy? she thought worriedly.

Nudge then caught sight of a small black figure rising in the air above the trees, and at first she didn't recognize it. It staggered through the air toward her, advancing a few feet, then falling a few feet again and again in a pitiful cycle.

It was Total.

Not now, Total, Nudge thought, frustrated. She was happy that he could finally fly, but she knew he wasn't going to be any help against the seven Flyboys. You're going to get hurt! she thought angrily, as if he could hear her. She turned, wanting to draw the Flyboys as far away from Total as possible.

Her turn was too slow, and one of the Flyboys took a swipe at her leg. She bit her lip, stifling a yell. She could feel the warm blood surfacing and spilling onto her skin as she tried to speed up.

I'm not going to make it, she thought as the sound of the Flyboys' wings seemed to grow nearer and nearer. She closed her eyes for a brief moment. There has to be a way out of this mess. But as she opened her eyes, she realized that she couldn't beat the seven Flyboys by herself with an injured wing and a bleeding leg.

I don't want it to end like this, she thought, a small cry escaping her lips.

Tears blurred her vision, and she couldn't see where she was going. She tore blindly through the air, still making a feeble attempt once in a while to throw the Flyboys off.

"NUDGE, GET OUT OF HERE!"

Iggy's voice had never sounded sweeter in her ears. She followed his instruction without question, speeding away with a new kick of adrenaline.

Seconds later, she was huddled on the ground, bracing herself against another explosion, her eyes shut and ears covered. A sudden wave of heat broke over her. Hot pieces of metal began raining down, and she hopped up to avoid them. She immediately toppled over, her bleeding leg giving out from under her.

She heard the steady beat of wings behind her and two feet hit the ground.

"Iggy, I can't move!" she cried.

Iggy didn't respond. She turned to face him, only to find a Flyboy who had avoided the blast coming at her.

"IGGY, HELP!"

She looked up and saw him fighting another Flyboy who avoided the blast in the air.

Nudge helplessly sat there, wondering what she had done to deserve such a cruel death, when the Flyboy made an odd struggling sound.

She turned back toward him. Total was viciously attacking the Flyboy's face. He wasn't doing much real damage, but it was enough to confuse the Flyboy so Nudge could attempt to escape. She began to crawl away awkwardly, flapping her good wing to try and move faster.

A strained squeal came from behind her, and there was a sickening thud as the Flyboy batted Total down to the ground. He landed a few feet from Nudge, not moving.

The Iggy-sized Flyboy advanced toward Nudge, ready to exterminate her like a bug. He reached down, picked her up by the front of the shirt, and held her up in the air, taunting her before he let her have it.

He let out a deafening howl and dropped her in a crumpled heap to the ground as Iggy, seemingly out of nowhere, smashed into the back of his head. She scooted back away as Iggy gave the Flyboy a kick to the stomach.

The Flyboy gave Iggy a hard right punch in the eye, followed by a punch to the ribs. Iggy fell back onto the ground, but he sprung back up as if he hadn't been touched. They continued like this, seeming to be evenly matched, as Nudge edged over to Total.

Iggy threw a revenge-punch at the Flyboy's eye. The Flyboy retaliated with an uppercut to Iggy's jaw. Nudge winced at each blow, hating herself for getting injured.

She saw Iggy reach into his pocket with an impatient yet devious look on his face. As the Flyboy took another swing at him, he dodged it and pierced the Flyboy's face with a screwdriver, lodging it into its eye. Iggy's screwdriver went easily through the flesh and then hit hard metal and wires. With a look of disgust on his face, he harshly yanked the screwdriver downwards as if he were pulling down a fire alarm. The Flyboy made unearthly noises as it fell and tried to pull the screwdriver out, failing to do so before its body stopped moving and completely shut down. Iggy kicked it to make sure it was dead, and as soon as he was sure he ran over to Nudge and Total.

When she didn't say anything, he dropped down to her level.

"Nudge?"

She looked at his face and took him forcefully into a hug, crying out loud near his ear.

"Iggy!" she sobbed.

He didn't have to ask.

He hugged her back, glad that she was okay. Well, maybe not okay, but definitely not dead.

As he pulled away, she noticed the area around one of his eyes was becoming discolored and a large jagged burn was on his cheek.

"Oh, Iggy," she breathed sadly, lightly touching the burn.

He reached up and felt it, too, saying, "A piece of Flyboy hit me in the face."

"Gross," Nudge said. She looked back down at Total, who was just out of her reach, watching as his tiny chest moved laboriously up and down.

"Iggy, Total was trying to help me, and he was attacking the Flyboy's face, and he was doing really good, but then the Flyboy hit him, and now he's unconscious, and I don't know if he's going to be okay, and I'm scared-"

He silenced her by holding out his arms. She moved over to Total, picked him up gently, and placed him in Iggy's arms. He carefully went over Total's body, and after a few moments of evaluation, casually said, "He'll be fine. He's just being a wimp."

"I'm no wimp," Total said faintly.

Nudge laughed in relief. Iggy smirked and said to Total, "So you can fly now?"

"Darn right I can."

"Thanks for helping me, Total," Nudge said, feeling guilty for doubting him. "You're definitely not a wimp."

"Thanks kid," he said, coughing. "Where's Akila?"

"Shouldn't you know that?" Iggy asked.

"I left her by Nudge's pack. Told her to stay put while I saved the day."

Nudge laughed again, trying not to grimace at the accompanying pain.

Iggy started, "I could go find her and bring her back here-"

"No! We're staying together, no matter what. We need to get back to the rest of the flock as soon as we can, and we have to stick together. Just help me up, and I can get there on one leg."

"Yes, ma'am," Iggy mocked.

He helped her up slowly. With Total in one arm and Nudge holding onto his opposite shoulder for support, he started the long walk to where they had left Akila.

I've never really written an action scene like that before. Honestly, how was it?
Thanks for reading!

-Skye

Oh, and if you want to, check out the one-shot songfic I wrote recently called "A Wish to Heal Immortal Wounds." It's not too bad. ;)