A/N: I'm going on an update spree! I have 5 days off for vacation, and since I have 5 stories, I'm going to try to update each one…Just don't laugh at me when it fails…
Disclaimer: Do I really need to say it?
FPOV
I woke up and the first thing I knew was that my head was fnicking killing me.
Seriously, I've never had a hangover before, but I think that this must be kind of what it felt like except worse. It made me feel like rolling on the ground in agony, but I didn't. Self-control, there, guys.
The second thing I knew was that for some reason I was lying on the ground, and it wasn't soft ground, either. It was hard, rock hard, and pokey. Like, a bunch of sharp spikes were stabbing my skull, adding to the pain. Plus, the ground was cold, freezing cold, so cold that I considered the fact that it was icicles stabbing my head. Hmm…that was a theory, there.
The third thing I knew was that I was behaving like an incompetent, so I decided to open my eyes. My eyelashes seemed to be stuck together, but after straining my eye muscles considerably (did I really just think that?), I managed to open them.
I appeared to be lying on cement. In front of me, Iggy was lying sprawled out on the ground, his limbs all askew. Paisley was a few feet away from him, her body limp.
Where was Max?
I sat up quickly. My head did not like this at all and protested violently, sending searing pains stabbing my brain. I cried out and clutched my temple, rolling into the fetal position as the pain slowly ebbed back to how it had been.
I cracked open one eye and sat up slowly, much more slowly. Keeping one eye tightly closed, and pressing my skull as the pain increased with movement, I saw Iggy and Paisley begin to stir.
"Oww…" Iggy moaned, gripping his own forehead. I grimaced in sympathy. Paisley opened her eyes and sat up, however, without problems, even as Iggy rolled over on the ground, contracting and then retracting all his muscles in attempt to deal with the pain. I'd like to note that this is exactly what I stopped myself from doing.
"Oh, my God…" Iggy squeezed out. "Fang…was I doing anything last night you need to tell me about?"
"Whatever it was you were doing, I must have done the same thing," I moaned. "My head is killing me."
"It probably happened when you fell on the ground," Paisley said. "My head landed on my arm, so it softened the blow. You might want to check for the source of blood, Fang, because it's covering the ground where your head was."
Slowly, I looked down. She was right – there was a thin layer of stickiness covering the cement. I ran my fingers gently through my hair until I found a matted spot.
"Well, I hope it's not too bad," I said, "because I can't deal with it right now. Where is Max?"
We all looked around. Max was nowhere to be found. Worry tied itself into a knot in my chest.
"Guys." Paisley's voice sounded panicked all of a sudden. "You guys, the door is locked. From the outside."
**!**
NPOV
The light was so sudden, so searing, that it physically hurt my brain. I pressed my suddenly mobile arms to my eyes, trying to make them stop searing with the pain.
"Somebody turn off the sun," I moaned.
"I doubt that that would help at all, seeing as we are inside," a growly voice commented, and for a moment, some of the horrible light was blocked.
I shrieked and my eyes flew open. Looming over me was what looked like – what? What could it be? An Eraser? No, they were all terminated years ago. So what could it be? It sure looked like an Eraser. I could only see the outline, but the outline sure looked like an Eraser and it was blocking the light.
"Do not be scared, Nudge," the Eraser said. "I will not hurt you."
"I-I-What the heck's going on?" I spluttered. Water – from what? – dripped into my eyes. "Where am I? And who are you?"
"You are in an isolation tank," the Eraser said. "I am saving you from it. And my name is Felix."
He held out a hand, and without thinking, I took it. It was big and strong and masculine and felt really really good in my hand. He hauled me to a standing position, and I looked around myself for the first time.
I had been lying in what looked like a coffin filled with water. Tubes and wires squirmed out from underneath it. We were in a room that was completely bare except for three other coffin-like things. I was dressed in a white hospital gown, and my wings unfolded out of the back. Plus, my hair was soaking wet and totally ruined.
I looked up at the Eraser, bracing myself – because really, what kind of a nerd name is Felix? – and had the shock of my life. He was gorgeous. He had the smoothest chocolate skin, a few shades darker than mine, and his eyes were warm like a fresh cup of coffee, before you put all the yummy stuff like milk and cream and sugar in it. His hair was braided back away from his head in thin braids that went past his shoulders, and he was somehow thin and muscular at the same time. He was outfitted in an unbuttoned leather jacket, showing off his smooth chest, a pair of khaki cargo pants, and black boots.
He was, like, the vision of my dream guy.
Except that he was (maybe) an Eraser.
He did have a few wolfish features – elongated canines, talon-like nails; but the fluffy wolf hair that was the most distinguished feature was all braided. It made an extremely macho picture.
I blushed. Really blushed, I mean, I don't think I've ever blushed harder (except that one time Gazzy walked in on me changing). I snatched my hand away and said, "Okay, if you're going to kill me, I promise I won't go down without a fight."
He looked confused. "Why would I want to kill you?"
"Um…because you're an Eraser?" I decided to just throw it out there, and if I was wrong, I guess I would just have to live with this depressingly gorgeous guy laugh at me before he killed me.
"So?" he asked. "Just because I'm an Eraser does not mean I want to kill you."
"Oh, so you're like Ari," I said, relieved. Then something occurred to me (I think for the second time today). "Wait, I thought all the Erasers were terminated years ago. So you're either lying between those white teeth or you're just amazingly good at surviving. Or maybe the whitecoats decided to keep you alive for some reason. I wonder why they might do that? Maybe because they felt bad for you for some reason? Or because they wanted to keep on experimenting on the Erasers even if they killed them all. Like having your cake and eating it too. Max always says I can't have my cake and eat it, too, but – oh!"
Realization hit me like a slap in the face. "Where is Max, anyway? What about the others? Are they all right? What's going on? Did you, like, abduct me or something? You better not have, Felix-the-maybe-possibly-Eraser, or else I'll kick your butt. I promise. I might act like a valley girl but I could kill someone like you very easily. So you better fess up now or I swear I'll –"
I stopped when I saw the amused expression on his face. And I'm telling you, I stopped cold.
"Relax," he said. "I do not know this Max person you are talking about. Nor do I doubt you could easily kill me if you chose. I hope you do not choose to do so. I have gone to many extremes to get you out of isolation. I can see you will not come with me of your own will, but please hear me out. If you do not choose to accompany me, I warn you: the men in white will return, and they will put you back in there." He pointed at the tank. "Perhaps indefinitely. I would strongly advise you to come with me."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "Why do you talk so weird? I mean, come on. Have you ever heard of the 21st century? 'Cause we're in it. And no one here uses the words 'do not'. You put them together, like, 'don't'. Like that. And anyway, why would I, like, go with you? You're a stranger. You ever heard of "Stranger Danger"? Well, it exists. And also, who's in there?" I pointed at the other three coff-I mean, isolation tanks. "More people that you kidnapped?"
He put up his hands. "No. I have no idea who lies within those. Perhaps you should check."
I wrapped my wings around myself, because I was so cold, but they were also wet so it didn't help much.
"I think I will," I said, climbing out of the tank. The floor was cold, and slippery. I almost lost my balance, but Felix caught me. His hands were warm, and it took a lot of willpower to rip my shoulders from their grasp.
"Thank you," I said icily. Marching across the floor away from him, I tried to calm myself down. Okay, so he's the hottest guy you've ever had the (mis)fortune to meet. He's an Eraser! Even if for some reason he found you attractive, Max would never approve…I sighed and banished those thoughts to the back of my brain as I approached the first tank.
I grasped the lid and cracked it open. I saw the figure inside's face contort with pain as it pressed its fingers to its eyes. "Stop it, Max…" it moaned."Come on, turn off that light…it's too early…Turn off that light or I swear I'll fart on you."
"Gazzy?" I asked.
"N-nudge...?" he moaned. "I'll still fart on you…even if you're not Max…"
There was the sound of footsteps. "Why does he keep saying that?" Felix growled near my shoulder.
Gazzy let out a yell and bolted upright. As his head connected with the top, it flew out of my hands with a bang, knocking me backwards and into Felix. He stumbled and lost his balance on the slippery floor, falling on his butt. I fell with him, and we landed in a heap.
Blearily, I looked up at Gazzy to see that he had already forgotten about the Eraser. He lifted his arms and looked down at himself.
"Aargh!" he yelled. "Why am I all wet?" He pulled at the sopping hospital pants he was clad in. "And, eew, what am I wearing? Is this Iggy's idea of a sick joke?"
He looked over at us and let out another yell. "Nudge! Get away! There's an Eraser underneath you!"
"I'm aware," I grumbled, untangling myself from Felix and scrambling to my feet. "But whether he's a good or bad Eraser is still un...un…" I glanced at him, searching for the word. "Unknown." I gave him my hand and helped him out of the tank. When his feet touched the floor, he opened his wings and gave them a good shake before wrapping them around his bare chest.
"It's cold in here," he commented. "Where are we?"
"No idea," I said, shooting Felix a glare. "You may want to ask him."
"Okay, where are we, Eraser?" Gazzy asked the figure on the floor politely.
"My name is Felix," Felix said. "We are in room 41B in the building known as the Academy in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America on the continent of North America on the planet Earth in the Milky Way galaxy in the Universe."
Gazzy watched him with a kind of awe. "Did he really just say that?" he whispered to me.
"I think so," I whispered back. "What's the Academy?" I asked louder.
"The building we are in."
"Yeah, I got that, somehow," I muttered. "Can you explain exactly what it is?"
"It is a facility similar to the School and the Institute for Higher Living," Felix said. "Its distinguishing feature is that it can pack up nearly everything in the entire building on a five day's notice and be completely gone, not even leaving a trace. Its claim to fame is having built the human/avian hybrid known as Dylan."
"Ooh, really?" I said. "This is Dylan's lab? That is so cool. Wow, I'm impressed. I guess the lab used to be in Ontario, correct?"
"Yes, at one point two or three years ago it was," he said. "It has moved twice since then, moving south with every move – first in Indianapolis, then in Chattanooga. And now, here we are in Atlanta. Let's check the next tank, shall we?"
"Huh?" Gazzy said. "You mean there are more people here?"
"Yes," I said. "Two more. In those two tanks. You take that one, I'll take this one."
He nodded and advanced to the nearest tank. I walked on ahead and cracked open the tank at the farthest end.
There was a banging sound from Gazzy's tank. He had thrown the top open carelessly and was peering at the contents with a slightly repulsed expression on his face. His fingers twitched like he wanted to slam the lid back down.
"What is it, Gazzy?" I asked fearfully, afraid that he might have uncovered some sort of dying mutant or something that was floating in blood instead of water.
"Dylan," he said.
I had to hold back a laugh as I turned back to my tank. Lifting the lid cautiously, I saw a small figure moan and turn on its side, away from the light, its hair trailing around its head in a golden halo.
"Good morning, Angel," I whispered to her.
She turned back over and looked at me, her blue eyes full of tears. I guess she could read my mind and see what I was thinking. She slowly sat up and pushed open the lid, closing her eyes against the light. I held out my arms to help her from the tank, but she wrapped her arms around me instead and leaned into my shoulder.
"What is it, sweetie?" I asked, rubbing her back.
Nudge.
I started at the sound of her voice in my mind. What is it? I thought.
Nudge, you can't say anything to Gazzy, Dylan, or Felix, but Max is in trouble. The whitecoats have her and she's in trouble.
**!**
R&R?