Mostly I just changed some dialogged. Fang doesn't gain the power of wielding fire. Sorry, for all you guys who actually liked it. Once again, I just felt like I was giving it to him to just make his task easier. He never uses the power again in my story anyways. I added a supernatural element to keep you guessing. Hope you guys like the changes.
Fang POV:
I just walked in the front doors of the Itex building. Yep, you heard me right. I just walked in. No alarms or anything. The front doors just slid open and I was greeted by a first class evil lab lobby. I was surprised; there were no alarms or anything. It was a large room, carpeted and grey. Empty of anything, and perfectly square.
I looked around for a camera. Finally, I found one using my raptor vision. Man, were they tiny!
I faced it and said, "I'm here, ya gonna give me a place to stay. I'm kinda tiered after the fly."
Jeb suddenly appeared in front of me. Literally, he appeared out of thin air. There were no doors except the ones behind me.
"It was about time you come here," said Jeb. "I was expecting you to come after Max. I didn't expect you to fall under this trap so quickly though. I'm very disappointed Fang." He shook his head sadly, as if I had failed some huge sick game he had made.
I glared at Jeb and said nothing. We stood there glaring at each other. Finally Jeb cracked.
"I think you should leave."
"Is this another test?" I had a feeling that it was. I would make sure I passed this one. I had to.
Jeb didn't reply. He just stood there. He swallowed and I could see every move accentuated in his throat. I heard the noise and it deeply disgusted me. But, I kept my face cool.
"Are we going to stand here all day?" I was growing frustrated.
"If we could have killed Max with the chip, we already would have," Jeb said suddenly. I narrowed y eyes. I was foolish, I knew that already. But this was like salt on my wounds, and boy did it kill.
"Show me where Max is. Now." I kept my cool composure, but my voice had dropped to a threateningly dark pitch. My hair fell over my eyes, and I stared at him angrily through it.
"I'm afraid I can't do that Fang," said Jeb becoming alarmingly serious. He lost his smug look and looked me in the eye. "Trust me Fang, it's better for both of you if you play along; don't fight."
"These games are sick," I spat the last word at him. My face twisted to an ugly snarl.
The door is in your mind. Free your thoughts first. Focus on a door. Be specific. Focus and the door will appear.
I focused. I listened to my thoughts and focused. I didn't even stop to think that the voice in my head might not have been mine. I just closed my eyes and concentrated.
I was in space. No, I was in… a vent? Yes. A vent. Wait, what? How did I get in a vent? Did that focusing thing really work?
The metal sides were dank and slimy. Each breath was filled with dust and I had to use all my will to resist coughing or sneezing. I had a feeling this vent hadn't been used for a long time. Just a haunch.
Years of being stuck in a crate did not help my situation. I was getting claustrophobic, and my breath hitched. Calm down. The vents being pitch black didn't help either. I was shimmying on my stomach, probably cleaning the vents for them with my shirt. Great.
I looked through the little vent opening and popped the cover. Scanning around and deciding the hallway was safe, I jumped out with an inaudible thump. I
I saw things that would scar me for life. Looking in I saw mutants with diseases so gruesome I felt like I would puke. Others rooms had mutants with distorted bodies. There was one room that scared me the most; it was filled with just random dead mutants thrown all over the small cell. I tried not to think of that fate meeting Max. I closed the door ignoring the cries of pain and for help.
I walked slowly, muting foot falls as best as I could with my combat boots on. At the end of the hall way there was a vault, almost like a bank vault with a circular door. Next to it was a pass coded lock. Was Max in here? Yes, I was almost certain she was. She was high priority; they would put her nowhere else.
I typed in random combinations, but this was Nudge's department, not mine. In frustration, I banged it with my fist causing the pad to break. The door swung open smoothly, but along with that hot, piercing alarms sounded. Red sirens flashed in the hallways. It was almost like a fire drill. Well, okay, not really.
I stepped into the cell, ignoring the pounding feet behind me. The erasers behind me made my heart pound in fear, but the sight of Max's slumped form in the cell made my knees tremble.
"Yo! Max!" I ran toward the slumped form in front of me. She was chained to the wall, her clothes in tatters. She was drenched in blood. There were wounds everywhere and her chest was barley moving. I was oddly proud of her, seeing that they felt the need to chain her even if she was in this condition.
Placing my hand against her neck, I felt for a pulse. She was alive, thank whatever force was out there.
I was afraid to shake her, for she looked as if she would break at my touch. I hated myself right then, for I had caused this huge mess.
My futile attempts to wake her gently was cut off when two erasers grabbing me and threw so hard I flew to the other side of the room.
My head slammed against the wall and my wings crumbled, I could feel warm blood begin to make its way down my scalp. I got up, fighting off the dizziness threatening to take over, and broke through the wall of erasers, knocking them to the ground. Max was slowly beginning to rise; painfully beginning to rise.
I didn't blame her though. She looked like death itself.
"Fang! How…?" she began, but didn't finish her sentence seeing the crowd of advancing erasers.
They grabbed my hands and twisted them behind my back. I was dimly aware of the popping of my shoulder. My sole attention was on Max, though.
Rage burned through my body as I thought of what they did to Max. I twisted out of their grasp and threw a punch at the nearest eraser. It caught him in the chin, and his head snapped back with a sickening crunch.
"Max!" I yelled. "You have to get out of here!" I yelled between punches. Holding more than five erasers back was more then I could handle, especially when more back up was on the way.
"Max hurry! Get out of those chains." I ducked under an eraser and ran to Max to help her. I tugged at the chains knowing they wouldn't give; I had to try though.
I stretched the chain out like a line between the eraser and I. What I was doing was so predictable, so I almost laughed when he ran right at me, through the chain, snapping the chain and bruising himself.
She asked uneasily, "Fang, how did you get here?" She swayed on her feet, but swung an unsteady punch at the eraser near her. It still was powerful enough to knock him back.
"No time," I panted out as another eraser came at me.
I pulled her up and leaned her against the wall as she began to sway; Man, what did they do to her?
Underneath the dirt and dried blood I could see how weak Max really looked. Her wounds were still dripping blood, and her ankles and wrists were yellow and purple. Through the rips in her shirt I could see her rib cage was mutilated. Her throat was scratched up bad, and her lips had dried blood like she had been throwing it up. But the worst was that her eyes were empty. Her original fire had left. And the spark she had when she was leading was dead and long gone.
Max, what the hell did they do to you?
"Where's the rest of the flock!" she yelled at me her voice hoarse and weak.
"Outside. They're waiting to bomb the place." I told her.
We ran over the fallen erasers and out into the hall way. The sirens were still blaring and were shrill to hear. Max limped with ever step, tears streaming silently down her cheeks. I didn't pick her up, but I let her lean heavily on me, carrying her weight.
We were so close. If only we could make it through that door.
Max POV (Starts happening when Fang is planning with the Flock):
I woke finding myself in a cell. I couched sputtering blood. I felt like death, and thought my life couldn't get any worse when Jeb walks in.
Great. Just great,I thought sarcastically.
"Oh dear Max," Jeb said as he knelt near me. I wished I at least had the strength to spit in his face, but if I did it would have been blood. "Fang's coming," he whispered. "Maybe you have a chance."
I tried not to get my hopes up, but it soared pathetically. "I don't want any part of your sick twisted game Jeb," I told him.
"Ok. If you want to pretend that you have no hope, then that's fine with me," Jeb said shrugging. He radiated smugness, and I wanted to slap him silly. Or actually, slapping some sense into him wouldn't be a bad idea either.
He left with a conceited little grin on his face. He thought he was so high and mighty, right? Yea, well karma's a bitch.
Sleep washed over me, and I didn't resist. Might as well seeing how I didn't know how long I was going to be in this hell hole.
I awoke to the sound of a shrieking alarm and Fang flying in through the door. Well that was amazingly quick. He ran to me and I felt his strong hands on my side. I took a breath to let him know I was alive.
"Max!" Fang yelled wanting me to get up. "Max! Get up! Wake up! You need to get out of those chains, Come o-" but his efforts were suddenly cut off. I then heard erasers and the thud of Fangs skull hitting the wall.
I was filled with worry, but I didn't have enough energy to turn around let alone help fight. I finally gathered my strength and stood up, following Fang's pleads.
They had grabbed fangs arms and twisted them around. I heard a pop and winced but Fang didn't notice. His eyes locked with mine, and I nodded the tiniest bit to let him know we could run.
Fang ran toward me and tugged on my chains. They wouldn't give. He did the most obvious trick next, but some dumb ass eraser ran through the chain setting me free.
I asked after the chain cracked, "Fang how did you get here?" I swayed unsteadily, so I spread my legs to get a better stance.
"No time," he panted between punches, as he had gotten pulled away by and eraser.
Where's the rest of the flock!" I yelled at Fang. My voice cracked like a young boys.
"Outside. They're waiting to bomb the place."
We ran out the cell. My ribs pierced my skin with every step, and I bit my lip from crying out loud. My vision got a little blurry, and wetness fell on my shirt. Fang let me lean on him. I was grateful.
But that didn't mean he was forgiven.