Chapter 19

Wren's POV

With a powerful dive kick I sent the last creature of the area's head straight into the ground, fittingly enough it was part ostrich. Panting lightly I gazed around at my handiwork, scores of mutants unconscious as far as the eye could see. From what I could see any civilians had managed to flee from the area to safety, thankfully enough. For a second I had regretted taking a whole section of town to myself but fortunately it seemed as though there weren't as many in the area as I had anticipated. From what I could gather with my enhanced hearing the others seemed to be handling themselves fairly well, though I could tell their battles were far from over. I took to the skies and scanned the area once more, I had taken down several of Victor's little science experiments but I had not managed to locate the man himself. If what the others told me is accurate then he's somewhere in the city and he has Melody with him. A vision of my sister flashed through my mind, thoughts of her being subjected to horrible torture and pain flooded my brain. I clutched my head in my hands, doing all I could to will the thoughts away until a new thought surfaced

What would she think of me? And heck, would she even recognize me?

I looked at my reflection in the window of a building, seeing my avian, snake-human form look back at me. If Victor had been making her watch all the terrible things his creations had done, would she be afraid of me? Now my parents' bodies surfaced again, would she hate me because I couldn't save them? Would she think I killed them? The thought and possibility of her rejecting me and then me losing the last thing I had to tie me to who I was began to eat away at me. With my memories and parents gone, losing her would rob me of the only thing I had left in this world and the thought scared me witless

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a red dot on the window that slowly began to draw closer to me. Instincts taking over I quickly moved out of the way as the sound of a gunshot rang through the area and the glass I was in front of shattered to bits. Looking around in the direction the sound came from, my eyes caught movement. Focusing on a distant rooftop I could make out the telltale shape of Victor McNeirish holding a high powered sniper rifle. All my previous fears and worries melted into hate as I charged towards where he stood. I dodged with ease as he clumsily tried to shoot me down on the way to him. By the time I had reached him and landed on the rooftop, barring his escape, he had clearly ran out of ammo for his sniper and had swapped to a pistol instead

"I finally found you McNeirish" I growled lowly, venom figuratively and literally dripping from me "Now I can send you down to Hell"

He was shakily holding his gun out at me before an idea dawned on him and he pulled something in front of himself and aim the gun to it

"Stay back or I shoot" he warned

Finally tearing my attention from Victor I realized he was aiming the gun at Melody who was bound in rope

"Melody!" I called to her

She seemed to be surprised that I could not only speak but that I knew her name

"How precious" Victor said more calmly, believing he had regained control of the situation "I do hope this is the big family reunion you'd hoped for Wren"

"Wren?" Melody asked looking at me "Are… you my big brother?"

The fears from before began to come back with a vengeance

"Indeed little Melody" Victor said to her "Your brother was the first success you mother and father had in my little plan, the first of all the creatures you saw running around"

She was taking in everything she saw of me, I could only imagine what imagery he forced her to witness. Swallowing my fear I mustered as much authority as I could

"Let her go Victor" I said "You've lost, in their dying moments my mother and father as well as Professor Utonium had created a counter-agent for your serum, once the military comes in and restrains the creatures they'll begin replicating it until there's enough to cure all of them"

His face was pulled into a scowl

"Indeed, I have lost" he started "But my dream will not die so easily, I'll escape and begin again and again until I finally triumph! And I won't let the likes of you, or anyone stop me!"

He began unloading his clip at me, however my feathers were enough to stop them from doing any real harm

It seemed Melody wasn't aware of that

"DON'T HURT MY BROTHER!" she screamed before tackling Victor with as much force as she could muster

The sudden unexpected shove caused Victor to lose his balance and before he could right himself both him and Melody began to fall over the ledge. Moving faster than I had ever done before I reached out over the ledge and barely managed to grab Melody's restrains before she fell ten stories to the street. I lifted her back to the roof and cut the rope with my claws before looking back down to the street. Sure enough, Victor had already hit the pavement and was closer to a messy pancake than a human

My anger began to boil and my hands clenched around the edge of the roof until the stone crumbled in my grip. The murderer of my family, of my friend's family had died before justice could be done, and not even by my own hand!

"I've been denied everything!" I growled to myself as I flared my wings to their fullest extent in rage "EVEN MY REVENGE!"

Melody's POV

The bird man's scream echoed for a long time as he sunk to his knees, the mean man said that he was my big brother. I wasn't sure at first but once I got a closer look at him, I began to recognize his face

"Big brother?" I asked timidly

He turned to look at me, his eyes piercing as an eagle

"Yes" he said "I am your older brother"

We both looked at each other for a while, unsure of what to say

"Where's mommy and daddy?" I asked

He seemed to flinch at the question and hesitated before answering

"They…they've gone to a better place" he said solemnly "I couldn't save them"

I had heard that expression before, grown-ups use it when someone dies, and big brother thinks he's to blame. After a brief moment I slowly wrap my arms around him, causing him to tense up

"I'm glad you're okay big brother" I told him truthfully

He didn't move or say anything but slowly he relaxed and hugged me back

"And I'm glad you are too" he said with his voice chocking up "I promise I'll keep you safe, for both of them"

I smiled at his kind words

"I know you will" I replied "That's what big brothers are for"

Me: *typing*

Nar: And just like that the actual story is over, but don't fret because there's still an epilogue on the way! R&R!