How are all of you? Sorry to leave you hanging, but it happens sometimes. :P So, I got a decent number of reviews again, but I'm just dying to get to 100! It seems so far away, but I think it could happen! Optimism makes me happy!
Random thought of the day: How many people actually read my story and don't review?
TOTALLY AWESOME, AMAZINGNESS SHOUT-OUT TO THE GUEST WHO SIGNED ON AS "LIV"
YES! I TOTALLY WANT TO BE AN AUTHOR! - In fact, I'm halfway through writing my own trilogy, and I plan on trying to get it published before I get out of high school! I'm so excited, and you completely made my day when you asked about that! YAYYY! Absolutely screaming with happiness!
And I'm extremely sorry to say that this chapter is mostly kinda sad, so please don't hate me. We get a glimpse of Wake's past. Oh, and we also get a sneak peak at Iggy's new power. - No matter what it seems like, or how confusing it is, it will be explained next chapter! And no, he's not just going to get his eye sight back, but it will be a smidge cooler, if I do sy so myself.
Iggy POV
"Iggy, I don't think they want a blind kid driving one of their cars." Fang said sitting down next to me. "Plus, I'm pretty sure it's against the parks rules. I swear it was on the sign back there."
"What sign? I didn't see one." I said, smiling and reving the engine. "Ooo, this sound sweet!"
"Ha, ha. Very funny Ig... except it's not, because you'll kill me." I heard Fang triple check his harness even after the ride authorities came by. "Come on. This is a bad idea. You know Ella and Dr. M wouldn't want you doing this."
I frowned hard. "Don't bring Ella into this. And as for Dr. Martinez, what she doesn't know, won't hurt her."
"That's what you're not getting! I'm the one that's going to get hurt, and I'm the one that's gonna end up in the hospital!" He shook me. Then added more loudly, "AGAIN! And in case you haven't figured it out by now, I HATE HOSPITALS!"
"Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over it." I laughed, and stomped on the gas when the sound of engines taking off suddenly filled my ears, along with some very prominent cursing.
Fang's hand was gripping my shoulder like he would personally throw me out of the car if we crashed. "Holy freaking cow!" Fang hissed. "Turn right! Turn right!"
I waved him off, earning more curse words since I'd brought one hand of the wheel to do so. "We're fine." I cackled, loving the feeling of the good kind of adrenaline coursing through me. "I'm following the sound off the person infront of me. It's not like I'm actually racing!" I looked over at him.
"Eyes on the road!" He yelled.
I grinned and threw my head back, drowning the car's engine out with the sound of my laughter. "You have no idea how stupid you just sounded!" I turned my head in his direction again. "Pft! Eyes on the road." I mumbled, smirking.
"IGGY!" He bellowed as I swerved just to get on his nerves. "THAT'S IT! GIVE ME THE FREAKING WHEEL!"
His arms reached across me, and I pushed him back with my shoulder. "No! You're gonna make me crash!"
"Then let me drive!" He argued.
His hands went for the wheel again, but this time my hand came up to his head and I held him back by his hair. "Dude! Are you trying to become Rapunzel? Get a trim!" His hands shot up to detangle my fingers from his mop. "And a brush."
As soon as his skin came into contact with mine, I stomped on the break. He tried yanking my grip off, but my fingers locked tighter without my meaning to. I was in shock.
"Fang?" I asked, moving my head around.
He punched me in the arm. "Let go, you idiot!"
"Fang... I can see."
There was a long pause and he stopped struggling. "You what?" He asked.
I blinked in confusion. "I can see myself, like my own face." I turned to look at him, and gasped. "And now I'm looking at my own eyes."
Fang dropped his hands, and so did I. "What are you talking about?"
My sight quickly vanished and was swallowed by darkness. "It's gone now." My eyes widened in panic. "I could see, but now it's gone."
Nudge POV
I blinked back tears as my throat constricted and blocked me from breathing. Wake had tensed up and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides, but he wasn't pulling back. His widened eyes flicked over to me, and I suddenly felt like I was going to puke.
Nudge? Angel thought to me.
I immediately started hyperventalating. Who the Hell did this chick think she was? Either my legs were going to turn to Jell-O and drop me, or I was about to deck someone. I could not wait in line next to her, especially when she just laid one on Wake!
Screw rides.
I turned on my heels and ran. "Excuse me. Pardon me." I choked out as I quickly shoved backward through the line, earning myself dirty looks.
"Nudge!" I heard his voice calling me. "Nudge, wait!"
I pushed on faster. I didn't want to have to face him. Not when I was like this. I launched myself over the railing with the first chance I had and took off in a full-out sprint.
Over Wake's calls and Angel's mind babble, I could hear the other girl calling for Wake. I just couldn't believe this. I was just being thrown away after everything?
I took a sharp left and jumped into the girl's bathroom. I picked a stall, threw open the door, and ducked inside. I stepped up on the toilet seat lid and leaned against the wall. My breathing was fast and I knew it was only a matter of seconds before the tears would come pouring down. It's not everyday that the guy you think you love turns out to already have a girl. I was more mad than anything. I grabbed a fist of my hair in one hand and puched the stall wall with the other, knocking the first set of hinges off and leaving a decent sized dent with my enhanced strength.
I blinked in astonishment at the damage I'd done. This wasn't me. This wasn't the way I should be acting, but I felt like taking out an entire army of Erasers at the moment.
"Nudge?" I heard his voice echo in the bathroom. I hadn't noticed that all of the people were suddenly gone. "Nudge, I know you're in there."
There was no point in trying to hide in an empty bathroom if he could hear my heart beating the way it was. "Go away." I whispered, knowing he would hear me no matter how loud I spoke.
I listened to his steps get closer. "Nudge? Which stall are you in?"
"Don't play stupid." I said, trying to keep my voice from cracking. "You know which one."
In the next moment my stall door was ripped off it's frame and a big, burly Eraser stepped up. It grinned. "Oh, Nudge, there you are!"
I screamed when I realized Wake's voice was coming from the furry mouth that clearly wasn't his.
"Calm down, sweetie. Us Erasers get upgrades too." It smiled and reached out for me. "I think I'll keep this voice."
"Wake!" I shrieked, sraining my vocal chords and hoping he'd hear me while I tried to squeeze through the impossibly small gap where the wall almost touched the cieling. When I realized the attempt was pointless, I placed a foot on the wall and launched of of it, using the force to slam my fist into the wolfish face. He fell back with a thud. I jumped over him and turned toward the exit. My heart dropped.
Fifty freaking Erasers.
There was no way I'd win this, but I'd go down fighting anyway. I took up a stance. Some laughed and one spoke up. "You mutants are hard to get as a group. But when one sad, weak little one strays from the herd..." He shook his head in mock sadness, "... well, it's not that hard to take it down."
"So, you want me dead?" I asked, my lips curling back in a snarl.
"No." The wolf said flatly, taking on Jeb's voice. "The man's voice I use now wants to see the flock. This is the only way we can get the others to come with us. Take one, and the rest will follow."
I bent my knees slightly, prepared to fight. "I'll kill you." I focused on the metal stalls, and they obeyed my will, flying at the Erasers. That just let all Hell break loose. Iron faucets were ripped from their places on the sink, water sprayed in every direction, and Erasers were falling over each other. With as much heck as I brought, it took only seconds until I was thrown up against a wall and dragged through the doors. I thrashed around in the bag they had me in. When I heard the door close behind us, I also was aware of the sound of Wake yelling and screaming. I screamed out for him too.
Wake POV
Those sneaky dogs. I knew something was up as soon as I heard the ringing in my ears. Someone was playing high pitch sound frequencys screwing with my hearing. When I said loud noises were painful, I never thought about that time when someone blew a dog whistle and I collapsed on the ground in agony.
I strained against the pain I was in now, covering my ears and growling. This ringing was even out of a wolf's hearing range, which was probably why the Erasers were never effected back at School. They had some machine playing the continuous high pitch squeal. And then I saw them, looking completely human, running off with a potato sack thrown over a shoulder.
I was practically deaf by that point, but I could still hear Nudge screaming bloody murder. People just stepped back and stopped and stared. I started in on a run, tripping occasionaly because my internal balance in my ears was thrown off. Someone grabbed my arm and yanked me around. I raised a fist to knock out who ever it was, but they grabbed my other hand.
"Wake, are you insane! Are you trying to kill yourself?" Kazin was shaking me. "Stay away from them! They'll take you back to that hellhole!"
I jerked my arms out of her grasp and fell on my hands and knees. I stumbled up and kept running for Nudge, her screams getting hopeless.
"You idiot!" Kazin yelled after me. She caught up easily. "You can't fight like this!"
I didn't even give a second glance at her. I followed them through a crowd as they dissapeared into a thin tree thicket. By the time I entered the small forest area, they were exiting on the other side. Kazin kept a constant pace by my side. "Go after her!" I finally spoke.
She shook her head.
I yelled at her, screaming swear words. I burst through the trees on the other side, willing to try and fly in my tipsy state. My wings raised up partially, and then stopped dead when I saw the scene in front of me.
Ocean, as far as I could see.
And Nudge in the squirming bag, on a boat out in the water.
I was frozen. I wanted to take off after her and start kicking butt, but I suddenly felt like lead. Normally, I would have stumbled back from the sight of the water and boat, but I stayed there, gaping at Nudge floating away. On the inside, I was yelling and going after her. That was what I wanted to do most in the world. But in reality all I could get myself to do...
was stand there and watch.
I stepped forward, finally convincing my body to go, but when the next wave rolled up and hit my toes, I had a sudden flashback that my PTSD brought on sometimes. The flashbacks always made me blackout, and this was the worst time for it to happen.
*-PTSD VISION-*
"Daddy, I'm scared." Jean said to me. "What do you think they are going to do to us this time?"
I looked down at Jean. She was five years old, and this was the only life she'd ever known. I'd just gotten to The School a few months ago, and I was still baffled at what the people did to kids like us. Jean had started calling me her dad after I'd helped her reset her leg when she dislocated her hip. I considered her my adopted sister.
Kazin bent down. "We don't know, sweetie." She stroked Jean's aburn hair that looked twice as dingy against her pale, white skin. "We just have to be ready."
Jean blinked back tears. "I don't like them. I don't like it when they hurt you guys." She threw her skinny, boney arms around Kazin. "Can't you fight back? You could beat them. You guys are strong."
"Don't worry about us." I whispered to her. "We'll be fine. I promise."
Then the Erasers came in. Kazin and I stepped in front of Jean as usual. They had never actually done anything too dramatic with Jean yet, and it'd been months since they last took her.
"Not today, kittys." One of the Erasers grabbed me by the arm and shoved Kazin back, pinning her to the wall as it sneered in her face. She went into total lockdown mode, and froze, becoming unresponsive to anything. They hurt us less when we did that. She and I were suddenly snapped out of it when Jean let out an ear-shattering scream.
"Mommy! Daddy!" Jean shook, fighting the wolf holding her.
"Let her go!" Kazin shrieked, and for the first time in our lives, we fought back. We'd never fought before, and we only managed to take down one eraser before we were pinned. They shot both me and Kazin with some dark fluid from a syringe, and I instantly felt like I was floating, and nothing was wrong in the world.
"Take the oldest bird away." One of them barked. They dragged Kazin somewhere that I wasn't focussed on, and she mumbled dopily to the Eraser about how he was a cute puppy dog.
I followed along drunkenly as they pulled me out with Jean at my side. She grabbed my hand in a tight squeeze and I smiled down at her. The Eraser jerked my arm away from hers and locked my fists together behind my back with the quiet clicks of handcuffs. Jean whimpered pathetically.
" 'S all right." I reassured her. I tried to say more, but my mind continued to wander. I was so out of it that I hadn't even seen which door we were shoved through.
They pushed me, without warning, into a chair. They pulled a leather strap around my neck and chest, while tying my ankles to the wooden legs. My arms were still crammed painfully behind me all thanks to the handcuffs.
"Daddy?" Jean whispered. "What are they gonna do to you? Do you know now?"
My mind wasn't working correctly, so I had no filter to keep me from saying what I always thought, but never said aloud. "I don't know." I pondered. "Maybe they'll end my life today. Kill me. Maybe I'd be happy for all of this to end."
"No!" She yelped. She squished me in a hug, before the wolves yanked her back. "Don't die! Keep fighting! Fight like you did back in the room! Fight for me! Fight for me, Daddy!"
Seeing her tears sobered me up enough to get out a sentence that was comprehendable. "Jean." I said with a sudden intensity. "I will always fight for you. Always."
"Enough with the touchy talk." A whitecoat said stepping in. "Number 375861, you're coming with us." Erasers picked up Jean and walked to a door on the other side of the room. The whitecoat continued to discuss his intentions to his collegues as they filtered into the room behind him. "That one was obviously a faliure. It hasn't developed any power traits yet, and it was created five years ago. We've decided to test out and experiment on number 549016. We want to see how much emotion it is capable of feeling. We are scared the weapon has to much of a mind range."
This stuff was confusing enough for any normal person, so I was barely registering that they were talking about Jean and me. They shoved me forward and pushed my face up to a wall. It split in half, the pieces sliding away from each other to reveal a glass one. I was in an observation room. My eyes landed on the large pool area below, and even through the drug, fear made it's way into my veins. It'd been exactly three months since I had last seen the room. The familiar boat stayed still on the glassy surface. I turned my head toward the door. I knew they'd be coming to get me soon. I closed my eyes and waited. I wouldn't quit when they put me down there. I would fight for Jean.
Minutes later, I heard a scream that made my blood freeze over. My eyes snapped open to focuss on the squirmimg body in the room below. With horrific realization, I saw that they were strapping my little girl to the boat. Jean was bawling as the platform she was standing on lowered and dissappaered beneath the water.
I would never put anyone through the details I had to suffer.
In the end, the scientists got their experiment. They watched my reaction with interest, as I flailed around as much as my restraints would allow.
...In their eyes, I failed.
...In my eyes, I had just seen them murder my little sister. Now, I would fight all I possibly could for her. I would fight until I brought the School down. I would fight for her - forever and always.
*-END-*
When I came back out of the flashback, I was on my knees in the sand. The speck of the boat was gone off of the horizon, and there was nothing but water. I looked down to my trembling fists. I hadn't gone after my Nudge. I let the same people take her, as whoever took my little sister out of my life forever. Small delicate hands grasped mine, and I sucked in a breath, thinking that they looked exactly like Jean's.
"Wake, don't do this to youself." Angel pleaded. "Stop it. I understand now. I get you. I saw it all."
I shook my head. I should've gone after her.
"She's right." Kazin said. "There was nothing you could have done, except accomplish getting yourself killed."
Suddenly, I was on my feet in a fighting stance, seething. She saw my movements and mirrored them.
"Calm it down, Wake." She cautioned.
I wanted to start yelling at her, saying that it was all her fault. She shouldn't have kissed me. We were never like that! She should have gone after that boat when I couldn't and had a stupid panic attack.
"It wasn't anyone's fault." Angel whimpered. She tugged on my arm. "Come on, the Flock is on it's way. We'll go after her together."
I looked down at her, and she blinked her blue eyes just the way Jean used to, with the slow start and then snapping shut at the end.
"We'll fight for them both." She said, giving my hand a squeeze. "We all will."
Sooooo, what'dya think?
Too much Wake? Idk.
Do you want me to elaborate on Kazin a little more? Do you hate her already? I kinda do... but her backstory is gonna be just as tragic as Wake's! I feel so bad that she - absolutely - will NOT end up with him.
And Ooooo... Jeb wants to have a little 'family talk' with the flock? Let's see how well this turns out...
Max POV in the next chapter I think!
And of course, REVIEW MAYBE? Tell me what you liked and disliked. Seriously! Criticism!? :D
