Chapter 11: Charades and a Surprise

"Fang, lets go. This place is probably crawling with erasers and whitecoats. If Scorch is their little messenger, they must be near." I told Fang, trying to drag him out of the store. He cooperated, and we made it to the parking lot without a fight breaking out. I put Fang's bags in the trunk, and went to the driver's side. We stepped into my car, and I drove out of the parking lot.

Throughout the entire ride, it was silent. Fang looked like he was thinking deeply about something.

Fang's POV

How could he? We were best buds in the school. I guess it goes to show, that you can't trust anybody but your family. We watched each others back. At least until the day when Scorch got taken. That day sucked.

Flashback

The whitecoats dumped us roughly into our cages. Scorch and I were both drenched in sweat, and we were both still breathing heavily. I had a few burns, but Scorch looked pretty bad. He was extremely tired after the tests the whitecoats had put him through, and he had a couple cuts.

The whitecoats were running various tests on him, but I was only with him a part of the way. They had him run on a treadmill for a while, to see how fast he could run. They had gotten amazing results; he could run a 3.3-minute mile, and run two miles in 7.5 minutes. I was doing endurance tests and was on my 2nd mile, when they dragged him off the treadmill. They took him to a different room, and all I heard was a few muffled screams every couple minutes. After they were done with me, I was dumped into my cage, and he followed right behind me.

Scorch's head slumped so it was resting on his chest. He was limply sitting in the back of his cage, still out cold.

I wonder what they did to him. They wouldn't do anything to damage him permanently. We were too special to be crippled in any way. I, and everyone else in this room, was filed under the "promising specimens." We were the future erasers basically, the minions that might be worthwhile to duplicate.

I found that staying was actually good. I was gaining a lot of information that would help me on future missions. As helpful as it was to be here, I really was getting creeped out by this place. I didn't want to stay here long enough for them to figure out what to do with me. If all went as planned, and the whitecoats did their usual 9:00 lock up, then the other experiments and I would blow this pop stand tonight.

Scorch twitched in his sleep, and slumped farther forwards. A pained expression appeared in his face, but he was too far asleep to wake up from it. Hopefully he would be up for the escape tonight. We needed to be prepared, and we couldn't screw up the element of surprise.

I planned to do it during closing time, because there were less whitecoats around. The less whitecoats around, the easier my plan would be.

I planned to go into the shadow of Scorch's cage, which was out of the view of the camera in the corner. I would then exit the shadow, staying in the cover of his cage, still blocked from the camera's view. I would unlatch his cage, and he would be free. Scorch would burst out of his cage, run up to the camera, and set fire to it. We would then have a 5 minute head start to get away. Until the whitecoats figured out what had happened, and called the erasers on us.

Throughout the entire process, I would never be seen.

I would take a shadow back into my cage, so it looked like Scorch's cage just opened somehow on its own. He would open my cage, and we would then do the usual. Let the other mutants out, blow up the place. Same old, same old.

You have no idea how much I would like to just screw the plan, and kick every whitecoats ass all on my own. If I did that, they would find out about my shadow ability. If they found out about my shadow ability, I would be screwed.

I was stuck with some organized and overcomplicated plan.

"Scorch!" I hissed quietly. I didn't want any whitecoat outside to hear me, even though that was highly unlikely.

He didn't move, or show any sign he heard me. "Scorch!" I hissed again. No response.

Oh, crap. If he didn't wake up, I would be forced to stay another night. I really didn't want that to happen.

The door opened, and a whitecoat came into view. He was carrying a blanket, and was followed by 3 erasers and a second whitecoat.

"This is it, Experiment 003456. The fire-being." The first whitecoat said.

"Excellent. He isn't all he has cracked up to be. Although, he almost looks entirely human. Too bad the eyes are just too hard to deal with. They always give a mutant way." The second whitecoat said.

He pulled out a set of keys, and handed it to an eraser. "You know what to do." The second said. He apparently was the boss.

The erasers opened up Scorch's cage, and picked up Scorch's limp form. I stood up quickly and snarled at the whitcoat's back. I was prepared to do anything to make them not take Scorch. He was the closest thing I had to a buddy in this place. He was going to help me get out of here, he was a good guy.

The whitcoat heard my snarl, "Now, to deal with this one." The boss whitecoat said. He turned to face me. "I knew you two grew close. Relationship is weakness, and weakness is not welcome here. So we will dispose of the weakness, so you can work for us. Face it Fang, our side is stronger. All we have to do is prove it to you. You will gladly be one of us soon."

"They day I join you guys is the day I start wearing pink. Meaning, it ain't gonna happen." I snarled at him, shooting him my worst glare.

He stared back calmly at me. "Fang, you will come to, very soon. Just you wait," the boss said, sounding pretty dang creepy.

He motioned to the other whitcoat, and he stepped up, holding the blanket. Realization hit me and I knew what he was going to do. I couldn't believe it. I rushed towards the front of the cage, and focused my hardest on a shadow outside. It was too late.

He placed the blanket so it covered my cage. I couldn't see through the material. So I couldn't see the shadows outside. I need to see the shadow before I could morph into it. So I was trapped, and I was screwed.

"Do you think we are total idiots? We have known about your ability ever since you came here, and a little before that. We are a lot smarter than you think we are," the boss said. "For now on, you're our little pawn. You best behave, or you won't like the consequences. We are stronger than you, Fang, so you should just give up. You've lost." The boss whitecoat said.

I pressed myself against the front of my bars, scratching at the material; hoping to make a hole in it.

You should give up. That material is so strong, that even you can't break through it. We call it metal threads. Now you enjoy the rest of the day, because tomorrow will not be pleasant."

I heard 5 pairs of footsteps begin to walk away, taking Scorch with them. "Scorch!" I yelled, hoping he would wake up. They were going to kill him, and it would be all my fault.

"Wha…" I heard from a drowsy Scorch. He was still half unconscious, and I knew he wouldn't be able to fight them off. The door slammed, and it became unusually quite in the room. I sunk to the ground, knowing I couldn't do anything.

They had taken my ticket out of here, they had taken my freedom, and they had taken my friend.

End Flashback

"Fang… we're home…" Came Max's voice.

"Yeah, 'kay." I mumbled to her.

She slammed the car door, and I was finally alone. I looked down at my seatbelt, and stared for a while. I must have been out of it for 10 minutes, so I stopped thinking about Scorch, and snapped out of it. I undid my buckle, and stepped out of the car.

Max was already inside, and she forgot to get the bags. I guess we would get them later. I walked inside, and saw Max sitting in a armchair in the living room. The rest of the flock was gathered around her on two other couches. By the look of seriousness on each face, I knew Max had already told them.

I quietly sat down in the armchair next to Max, guessing that they wanted to talk. We were facing the flock, and I looked in turn at everyone's worried face.

Max's POV

I turned off the car, and pulled the key out of the ignition. Fang was still spacing, most likely deep in thought. The car ride home had been silent, and I knew that Fang was confused. I would be be... if my best friend came back and he had gone to the evil side.

I felt bad for Fang, but we needed to get some answers from him, and it needed to be within the day. We either needed to be gone by the time Scorch showed up, or we needed to be prepared.

"Fang… we're home…" I told him softly.

His eyes became more focused and he mumbled "Yeah, 'kay."

I slammed the car door, and allowed him to be alone. I walked inside, to see the flock playing charades.

Gazzy was acting, and the flock was guessing. Angel wasn't allowed to read people's minds, and she was sending Iggy mental pictures so he could play too. Gazzy flailed his arms rapidly, as if he on major sugar rush or something. "Someone running down the street naked! A person on fire! Squirrels attacking a hiker! A rabies infected animal! A pigeon!" They all yelled randomly. Gazzy pointed to Nudge, who had guessed a pigeon. He put his hands close to each other, to show she was close.

He resumed flailing his arms, and the flock began guessing again. "Sparrow! Toucan! Lovebirds!"

Gazzy slapped his forehead, and rolled his eyes.

"Mrs. Figgets!!" Nudge yelled suddenly. Everyone stared at her, and inwardly questioned her sanity. "Sorry, random thought…" she said sheepishly.

The flock resumed guessing a bunch or random bird names. Gazzy looked really annoyed, and all the sudden, he burst his wings out of his back, and flew in midair. Both wings got very close to the walls, and he stared at the flock. If they didn't get that one right, I would be very concerned for them. "FLYING!" They all burst out at the same time.

"God! Finally!!" Gazzy said, exasperated. "You guys suck at charades."

"You suck at acting!" Angel burst out. "That's the easiest thing to act out, considering we can freaking fly."

"Well I didn't want to make it totally obvious! If I actually flew in the beginning that kinda would have been a stupid turn." Gazzy said defensively.

The flock began arguing, and it started getting a little rough. Iggy had Gazzy in a headlock, and Angel and Nudge were arguing with each other.

"Guys! Guys! Break it up!" I yelled standing between Gazzy and Iggy.

This is why you never played a game, that you could win, with a bunch of high strung bird kids.

"You guys can do some sparring later. We need to talk." The room quieted down, and Nudge looked around.

"Where's Fang?" She asked.

"He's still in the car. He needs some time alone." I told the flock.

"Max, what happened? If you guys are mad at each other again, I swear, I will lock you two up in a room together. Beca-" I interrupted Iggy.

"We are not fighting. Something has come up." The flock's faces changed to worried expressions. I sat myself down on my favorite armchair, and the flock sat on two couches.

"What happened?" Iggy asked.

"If I truly knew, I would tell you. All I know is that some bizarro guy, who apparently was Fang's friend, is trying to get me to come with him." I explained. The flock didn't seem to know how to react. "You know, to the school. Or something…" I mumbled.

The door opened, and Fang came in. The flock turned their face to Fang, and he quietly sat down in the armchair next to me. I instantly wondered exactly what Fang looked like when he was in shadow form. I pushed the thought out of my head, I would ask him later.

"Fang? What's all this about?" Iggy asked.

"Look guys. I don't know." Fang mumbled. He was hiding something, and we all knew it.

"Angel?" I implied. She nodded, and a look of concentration came on her face. She was reading his mind.

"Nothing. He won't let me in." She said.

Sometimes Fang can be so dang stubborn. "Fang, whatever you are hiding, we need to know about it. You can't hide it forever." I pressed.

He ignored me, and appeared to be thinking deeply. He appeared to decide on something, and began to speak.

"I don't really know what is going on. All I know, is that Scorch got taken away 3 years ago. I thought he was dead. I also know, that good people like him, don't just suddenly decide to go to the dark side. They are forced there. And that's exactly the situation Scorch is in." Fang said. That was just about the most he had said, at one time, to the entire flock.

"Look, I don't know exactly what the entire situation is with Scorch, but for them to make him play along, he must be pretty screwed. All I know is that Scorch is in trouble, and we have to help him. But first, we have to help ourselves." Fang said. He looked up at us, starring each of us in the eye at turn.

Fang stood up and said seriously, "Be down and ready in 10. Bring as much food as you can carry. We're running. And I know just where we are going to go."

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