The day after my first training session with Max I was sore all over, however on the plus side when we moved to a different safe house I was able to graduate from riding in the van to flying with the rest of the flock.

Soaring high above the earth was magical, invigorating and terrifying all at the same time, each time my wings moved I felt more alive than I ever had before in my life, yet when I looked down and actually realised what I was looking at there was a part of my mind that still couldn't comprehend what was happening and screaming for me to land….I chose to ignore that part. The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful and we soon landed at the last safe house in the UK; tomorrow we were heading into Europe.

Once the van had been unpacked, Iggy set about preparing the food whilst Max and I started to spar. She was still outclassing me but I was slowly beginning to pick up little tips and tricks from her fighting style, but of course it still ended with me getting a beating. As night fell we ate the meal Iggy had prepared which was followed by the slime, after that Iggy and Gazzy went off to work on some new explosive they were toying with, whilst Nudge watched keeping just far enough back to be out of the way should one of their measurements be slightly off. Max had gone off to talk to Jeb and I was left with Angel in the 'lounge' if it could be called that.

"How do you do it Angel? How do you control all the stuff that's going on in your head?"
"I dunno Jax, that's the honest answer. Stuff just happens and I seem to know what to do and how to do it. I mean it's still scary when a new ability appears out of thin air but at the same time it's exciting. Also don't forget I've been growing up with these powers, you've had yours thrust upon you with little time to adjust to them. Although if it helps I can show how I clear my mind to help me sleep at night?"
"I'll try anything right now."

Angel then adjusted how she was sitting till she was in the classic meditation posture; legs crossed and arms relaxed on her legs. I tried to mimic what how she was sitting and then she started to guide me in slowing my breathing and thinking of something blank like a white room. So that's what I did, I slowed my breathing and tried to clear my mind of any and all thoughts, soon enough I could feel my whole mind and body relaxing and this had an unexpected but quite useful side effect. It started in my shoulders and then slowly travelled down my arms but I instantly recognised the sensation, it was Psi energy gathering in my arms. I tried to keep my mind calm and control the movements of the energy within my arms. It started with me halting the movement of the energy down my arm, and then I was able to move it back up towards my shoulders. Confident that I had sufficient control over its movements I let the energy travel down to my hands and from there out into my palms. I felt the tingling leave my body and then slowly I saw the air around my palms start to shake and distort, as more and more energy gathered the shimmering grew stronger and stronger and then the whole ball started to glow a very faint blue.

"That's one of the prettiest things I've ever seen!"

Nudge had come back into the room to see what Angel and I were up to, her sudden outburst made me lose control, luckily though rather than shooting off and obliterating a nearby object this time the energy just dissipated into the surrounding air.

"Oh it's gone."
"Sorry Nudge, I'm still trying to get control over this whole Psi thing."
"That's ok although I wish I could do something neat like that, all I've got is this nerdish computer power."
"Computer?"
"Yeah come and see."

Nudge headed over to her bag and pulled out a laptop, she brought it back over to me and Angel and turned the machine on. Once it had booted up she asked to change the password and then restart the machine, not seeing where this was going I did what I was told and changed the password to; Antidisestablishmentarianism.11235813

I was hoping to be clever and use one of the English languages longest words coupled with the first few numbers of the Fibonacci sequence to make it a bit of a challenge for her. Once the machine had rebooted we were greeted with the password screen and I handed the device back to Nudge, once she had the laptop she placed her hand on the screen which started to flicker and then within seconds the password field was filled and the machine logged on.

"How the hell?"
"Don't even ask Jax, I haven't got a clue myself."
"It seems most of the powers you guys have leave you clueless as to how they work."
"Well as long as they work we don't care." Angel said smiling.

The two girls then got up and walked off leaving me on my own. There was an ever so brief period of silence before all hell broke loose.

The door to the building was blown to pieces and the room I was in was filled with smoke, seconds later I heard a strange metallic rattle along the floor before the whole room was filled with a blinding white light. I staggered around trying to clear my eyes and assess what had just happened, then suddenly I was kicked in the stomach and sent flying backwards across the room, I hit the wall and fell to the floor and then I felt the clawed hand of an Eraser grab me by the neck and lift me up. The building was now filled with screaming and shouting, amongst it all I could make out the flock and Jeb and then there voices which I assumed belonged to the Erasers who were invading. My eyes finally cleared and I was able to see what was happening;

"Holy shit! Amy!"
"Hello Jax."

By this time the shouting had subsided and I could now hear footsteps coming from various rooms all heading towards us. One by one the flock was led in followed by 2 Erasers with each one carrying a gun, all of us had a look of astonishment on our faces.

"How? How did you find us?"

There was a collective laugh from our captors but to be honest I was just biding time, already I was trying to clear my mind and repeat my earlier feat of gathering Psi energy.

"The old man got lazy….."

Amy maintained her grip on my throat but turned to Jeb to carry on her explaining;

"…..what did you really expect Jeb? You were using Itex assets to survive by, you should've know that sooner or later we'd untangle the mess you were hiding behind."

There was no reply from Jeb but Max decided to voice her opinion on the situation;

"I swear, I will kill you for this! You signed your own death certificate the moment you held a gun my flock!"

There was some shuffling at the door and then two of the Erasers stepped aside, the person standing behind them took the words out of Max's mouth instantly;

"Hello Max."
"Oh my god! Fang! What have they done to you?"
"They've opened my eyes Max, we were never going to be able to keep this up forever. Besides they really aren't that bad."

There were tears building in Max's eyes but she tried to fight them back, while all this was going on I was trying to make sense of what was going on with Angel;

'Angel, is that really Fang?'
'Well yes and no, it is Fang physically but whenever I try and reach his mind I'm being blocked, it's like they've brainwashed him.'
'Well can't you get passed that?'
'What do you think I've been doing?'
'Regardless of what's happened to Fang tell the others to get ready, I'm about to make a move.'
'Jax, is that really the best option at this point?'
'Right now Angel it's our only option. Tell the others to blink twice when they're ready.'

I waited a few seconds and then I saw everyone blink twice.

'Show-time.'

I raised one hand so that I was facing Amy and another so that it was facing the Eraser who held Jeb, before Amy could ask what was going on the bolts of Psi energy had sent their targets hurtling backwards.

"Jeb now!"

Jeb spun round and grabbed the gun out of the Erasers hand, several shots were fired and the Eraser staggered backwards. I launched forward and tackled Amy down, during my time away from Itex I had forgotten how strong the women was, after I'd landed on her she punched me up so that I collided with the ceiling. The Erasers holding Max had now both been shot by Jeb but now the element of surprise was gone, the one's holding Nudge, Gazzy, Iggy and Angel were moving towards the door. I saw Iggy produce something from his trouser pocket and then it twigged that it was a basic detonator;

"Surprise douche-bags!"

The room behind us exploded and a fireball engulfed the room, the building was now engulfed in flames and from where I was all I could do was watch as Iggy, Gazzy, Nudge, Angel and Max were taken. I looked around and saw Jeb had been pinned down by some debris that fell from the ceiling after the explosion, the room was becoming an inferno and I was starting to struggle breathing.

"I've been looking forward to this."

I looked across and the room and saw that Fang was still there.

"For fuck sake Fang snap out of it! We need to get Jeb out of here!"
"The old man made his choice. It's your fault this happened! If you hadn't have made contact with the flock they'd still be running around thinking they were safe but no, you had to come and mess it all up!"

He vaulted the flames and came crashing down on me, he pinned me down and started to merciless beat me. Punch after punch was thrown and I could feel my anger and desperation at the situation grow, as Fang threw another punch I gather what little Psi energy I could and projected it outwards, the field flung Fang back and through the burning ceiling. I gathered some energy in my hands and flung it down beneath me, sure Newton's Laws kicked in and I was flung upwards through the hole onto the second floor. I grabbed Fang and returned the beating, after several punches I used all my strength to throw him across the room, not wanting to let up I quickly followed up the throw hooking my foot under Fang's chest and kicking him upwards, once he was at my torso height I spun round and launched a Tornado Kick into his side, this sent him careering through the ever weakening walls and out onto the ground below.

I jumped back down to the first floor and tried to use my Psionic power to move the debris but my mind was too full of thoughts so I had to move it all by hand, after 30 excruciating seconds I was able to grab Jeb and make my way outside. I lay Jeb down by the van and went to grab Fang, I knelt down by the unconscious hybrid and placed my hands on either side of his forehead.

'Let's see if I can't find the real Fang.'

I shut my eyes and let my mind delve into his. Instantly I could see what Angel had meant there was an unnatural resistance in Fang's mind, I keep up the pressure and soon enough I was through. Once I was past the initial obstacle I still had to try and drag Fang's mind back into the conscious world, which giving what I was finding wouldn't be easy. His mind was full of hate but at the same time and intense love for Max; a love I hypothesised Itex had used in order to manipulate and brainwash Fang with. As I carried on looking I was aware of someone approaching me in the real world.

My eyes snapped open and I grabbed Jeb's wrist but managed to stop short of throwing him over my shoulder.

"Jeb you shouldn't be up, you need to rest."
"Itex just attacked me and took Max and the rest of the Flock, the brainwashed Fang and tried to kill you, I'm going anywhere till those bastards pay."
"Well since you're not going to listen to anything I say you might as well help me with Fang."

We both grabbed Fang and put him in the back of the van, the tyres had been shot so we weren't going anywhere in that but it was some basic shelter which is more than could be said for the burning building we had occupied mere hours earlier.

I turned to Jeb to ask what we should do next, however before I could say anything the phone in my pocket went off; I'd been sent a picture.

"They've just changed the rules!"

On the phones screen was a picture of the flock, all of whom were unconscious but in the middle bound to chair holding a sign that said 'Help Me!' was a very conscious and very afraid Emma; my closest and dearest friend.