Max's pov
Several minutes after I learned how to shoot the gun, (though I was still having some issues with aim) I realized that I had made an enemy. The girl in the black ski cap seemed to have set her sights on me in particular.
I noticed it when I was hiding behind an enormous boulder, trying to take aim at one of the guys out there, and I got hit in the back. Right on my spine. Let's just say I underestimated how badly it would hurt, because it stung. Nothing unbearable, but it still hurt. So I turned, and saw her throw her head back and laugh. So I aimed at her, and totally missed by about five feet.
Since then, she has been tailing me, and every time I turn my back, she shoots it.
I ran into the woods there, knowing I would have an advantage because of my vision, and got behind a tree. I focused my eyes on something far away, and felt my raptor vision kick in. Seconds later; I poked my head and gun around the corner, and saw her ski covered face grinning at me. Ok, so I couldn't see her grinning, but I could just feel that she was grinning. I took aim, and with my eyes zoomed in, right on her chest, I fired, 3 times.
And suddenly she was jolted back, three times, and she stopped laughing. I had, for the first time, hit my mark. All three shots had hit her, square in the chest.
She raised her gun, and fired right for my face, with my raptor vision, I saw it coming. Knowing it would bug her, and also knowing that I had just enough time, I leaned slightly to the side, with a grin on my face. It whizzed right past my face. I stood up straight again, and ducked behind the tree.
I pressed the yellow button, and simultaneously lifted up the bubble, and checked to make sure I had enough paintballs to go at this chick. I did.
As soon as I snapped the lid closed, I jumped from around the corner, and took a rough aim, and pulled the trigger as fast as I could in quick succession.
Suddenly there was an explosion of blue and green paint about 15 feet from her. I looked like one of my paintballs that I fired hit one of hers. Shocked, I stopped firing for one second, and in that second, I was pelted by paintballs. I was nearly knocked to the ground, and when I stumbled back a few steps, and shook my head.
After several seconds, she girl took off running in the other direction. I raised my paintball gun, and took aim. But I didn't pull the trigger. Just because she had hit me with my back turned, I wasn't going to do it to her.
I ran after her, back into the field and checked my carbon dioxide tank. I was running a little bit low, so I refilled it, and ran over to my mom, restocking on paintballs, too.
I quickly ran back into the middle of the action, with my gun at my side, and decided that I should start a war… with Fang.
"Hey Nick!" I shouted over all the noise, and two head turned to me. Fang's head was one of them, and some other random guy. Fang grinned.
I raised my paintball gun, and his grin began to fade. I laughed, and took off running in the other direction. As I knew he would, he followed me, chasing me off into the woods.
I looked around, and saw that no one, other than Fang, was around, so I didn't have to watch my back. I jumped up, and grabbed a branch just over my head with one hand, and hung onto my gun with the other. Then I kicked my legs so I swung up onto the branch a little better, then I pulled myself up onto the main trunk of the tree, very ungracefully. Then I waited.
A few seconds later, I saw Fang run into the woods, barely being able to make out that it was even him because the brush was so thick. Then I cleared my throat. His head snapped to the direction of the noise, and look around.
I averted my gaze, knowing that with our instincts, if I stared to long, he would be able to pinpoint where I was. I raised my fun, and looked down at him, ten feet below me. I grinned, and coughed a tiny cough. He looked over to me, to see me, pointing a paintball gun at him, and then to see a big blue ball flying at him.
He was splattered with blue paint, and staggered a few steps back. He was back in no time, ready for another go.
I looked around, making sure that no one had showed up, and jumped from the tree, fifteen feet in the air. That might look funny to most humans. Then I tapped the end of my paintball gun on the tree, and then raised it, aiming for him from twenty feet away.
Just as I pulled the trigger, he jumped behind a tree, and ran out from behind the other side with paintballs flying. I was hit with three all at once, one hitting me smack in the chest. I fell back onto my butt in shock.
I had gotten hit with 8 paintballs this whole time I had been here, ranging from the back of my head, to the middle of my back, and none had hurt this bad.
As soon as the paint sprayed all over me, I felt the searing pain. I shut my eyes, and took a deep breath and feeling the hurt go even deeper than before.
I gasped, and felt the awful pain again. It seemed to hurt all the way to my lungs. I opened my eyes to see Fang standing there looking very confused.
"Max?" he began, "you're just faking it right?" he asked, sounding very concerned. All the other times I had gotten hit, none had been half that painful.
I nodded. "Yup," and raised my paintball gun halfheartedly. I grinned, trying to make it seem real, and fired at him. My aim was totally off, he didn't even have to move his feet to avoid getting hit. I stood up again, and leaned against a tree, trying to be inconspicuous.
"Max, you're not okay," he said walking forward. "Where did I hit you?" he asked, sounding very gentle. "I didn't mean to hurt you, you know."
I nodded. "Yeah, I don't really know why this one hurts so much. You just, uhh, hit a tender spot," I said.
His eyes flickered to my chest for less than a second then flew back to my face. "It hurts more than getting hit… uhh there, then on your arm?" he asked, sounding like it was totally new news to him. I fought off a smirk at his ignorance.
As soon as his words sunk in, I blushed a little bit. This was a very uncomfortable thing to talk about, I just shook my head.
"Let's just go turn in our stuff, and go home for the day," I said, ignoring his question.
He nodded, looking thoughtful. We walked out through the woods, and got into the main playing area. I was on alert, looking around for any flying paintballs. I saw none.
We made it about halfway before Fang suddenly pushed me off to the side. A split second later a paintball zoomed past my head. I turned around, raising my paintball gun as I did, and fired randomly in the direction that the shot came from. Somehow, I wasn't surprised to see the girl with the black ski-mask on.
Several paintballs later, we were walking out of the arena. I was still having a bit of trouble breathing and my chest was absolutely throbbing. I grabbed Fangs hand as we were walking out, noticing that he was still deep in thought.
"Something on your mind?" I asked him. I knew he would tell me when he felt it was the right time, but I really just wanted to know now.
He shook his head.
"Liar," I muttered. He flashed me a slight grin. We walked over to where we had rented the guns at, and placed them on the counter. This time, the man who rented them to us was there waiting.
"Surprised you two made it without padding," he said, looking over the guns for any sign of them getting bashed against a tree, or something of the sort. He found none, nodded, and put them under the counter. "Especially you missy," he said, looking at me. "How's your shoulder?" he asked, looking at where I had gotten hit on the chest.
Man was I glad he said shoulder, rather than where I had really gotten hit. "A bit sore. Fine though," I said, not looking at Fang. I knew he felt guilty about being the one who had shot me there.
Really, I wasn't mad at him for it. It's not like he aimed for there or anything, so there is no reason to feel bad.
"Pretty tough," he said, I nearly smirked. He had no idea. "Do you plan to come back any time soon?"
I nodded. Fang didn't. "We'll be back next week," I said with finality, showing Fang that we really were coming back. The man nodded.
"Well have a nice day then," he said, giving us a little wave that told us he needed to attend to the growing line behind us.
We walked over towards my mom, who was still sitting patiently in the stands. She looked up from the book she was reading and smiled at us. I waved to her, and grabbed Fang's hand. My face reddened slightly, and I started walking faster, hoping that Fang would think that I only grabbed his hand so he would keep pace with me.
When we got to my mom she had just finished putting her book away. "So you guys learn anything?" she asked. I nodded.
"But we still need to work on aim," I said. She nodded.
"In a few days we can. But today, we have to go home, and do a real quick look to see if we can even find some bad hiding places; just so they think that is what we were actually doing," She said.
"Uhh, what about the giant paint splatters?" I asked, gesturing to the huge circles of multi-color paint covering me.
"You have to totally cover yourself in mud to cover it up, I guess," she said. I noticed how it seemed like she hadn't quite planned that far ahead. Just like I never seemed to do.
"Great plan," I muttered. So I guess we were going to say that we had come across a swamp or something. Iggy would never let me live down that I took an unwanted mud bath.
We drove in silence for several more minutes, until I began to recognize the surroundings. We were about 5 minutes from home. "Hey mom, you should probably let Fang and me out, so that we get there at different times, and it doesn't look suspicious," I said, thinking that if Fang and I showed up covered in mud, and my mom wasn't, it would look odd.
She agreed. "Yeah, yeah. You always have to plan ahead, don't you?" she joked. She pulled off to the side of the road and me and Fang got out. "So I'll see you in about ten minutes? Covered in mud, right?" She checked. Both Fang and I nodded.
I nodded, and stepped out of the car. Fang jumped out after me, and my mom waited for us to step away from the car before she pulled away.
Fang and I began walking towards the house. About two minutes in, Fang pointed into the woods. "See that?" he asked.
I squinted, and I could barely make out some cattails deep into the woods. I started walking towards them as my answer.
"Wanna see something cool?" he asked, walking next to me.
"Sure."
The next thing I knew, I was alone in the woods. I couldn't see him anywhere. He was just gone. Some bushes moved off to my right, and I turned my body in that direction. Then I heard a noise behind me. And then another just in front of me.
I wasn't really afraid though, because I knew it had to be Fang. He had just made himself invisible; so I just shrugged and kept walking towards the swamp, knowing that he would eventually show himself.
I heard a twig snap about thirty feet in front of me, and I smiled. Mr. Swift and Silent wasn't so silent after all. Not when there wasn't any other noise to cover up the minute amount he made.
I walked a little further on, just until I was nearly at the edge of the swamp before I heard another noise. Fang's breathing.
"Must you do that?" I asked him, annoyed. He was breathing down the back of my neck again, and making me feel ridiculous for talking to- seemingly- myself.
"I'm only breathing," he replied. I just looked at him; where I thought he was anyhow, and got a whole new appreciation for Iggy's ability to look right at you when he can't see you.
I shook my head and fought off a smile: Sometimes that boy could be so… irksome.
I saw Fang's form shimmer for a moment; and then I could see him again, finally. I walked to where the ground started to get mushy, and breathed in. This was not something I normally did, because normally, I would have to worry about when my next shower would be so I could wash this all off.
"Keep your hand out of the mud," Fang said before dramatically plugging his nose and taking a step forward.
"Ahh… why?" I asked. I would much rather keep my face out of the mud than my hands.
"Want it to get infected?" he said. Comprehension dawned on me.
I nodded, "Right."
I stepped forward too, and water oozed up around my shoes, and the shoe prints that I had left. Mud seeped up around my shoes, and I took one big leap forward, hoping to end up at least up to my knees in mud.
Several minutes later, my whole body from the neck down- minus my hand- was coated with a thick layer of smelly mud.
I bent my knees, and leaned back, so the back of my head was in the mud, then using my hand I rubbed the mud through my hair. When I was done, I straightened up, and looked at my hand.
Spreading my fingers apart, I raised my hand up to my face to put mud on it. No way in this world, or the next, that I was sticking my face into that muck. I grabbed some mud in my hands, and smeared it across my face.
And I'm not gonna lie, I grimaced.
"Need help?" Fang asked me.
"Nope, I got it," I replied.
He pursed his lips and walked over to me. He grabbed a big glop of mud, and reached for my face.
"I said I got it!" I said backing away. If I gave him the opportunity to throw mud in my face, he would definitely abuse the opportunity.
"You can see your finger prints," he said still approaching me.
I scowled. He was right; it wouldn't look natural if I did it. I sighed and stopped backing up. He tilted his head to the side, in a way that said 'thanks'. Turning up my jaw and looking away from him, I let him smear mud all over my face.
After a few seconds of not feeling any more mud get smeared on me, I turned to find him. He was staring right at him.
"What? Is there something on my face?" I asked sarcastically.
"Nothin' that doesn't make it look even funnier," he muttered. I bent over and grabbed a big clop of mud.
"Your turn," I said and chucked it at his chest. He gaped blankly at me for a moment before he snapped into action.
The clop hit me right in the leg. Within minutes we were both thoroughly covered in mud so thick there was no way the paint would be visible.
Just as I chucked a big clump of muck at him, I called a truce. He laughed deviously as he shook his head.
"Seriously, we have to get back," I said as I dodged a big hunk of mud held together by some grass. He chucked another, "or everyone will wonder where w-" I spat out some mud from my mouth and started coughing.
"Pwe, Phe, ppph! Fang!" I shouted as I spit out some little chunks, "That was my mouth!"
He chuckled. I ran at him (as fast as you can when you're in mud up to your calves) and shoved him over. I stood over him and shoved mud into his face, making sure to get some in his mouth too.
"Taste good?" I asked him. He turned his face to the side, and rolled over, in an attempt to stand up, and avoid the many clumps of flying dirt.
"Ah, ah, ah," I said. I bent over and grabbed his wrists trying to hold him in place. I put my knees on his chest to hold him in place.
"Truce?" I asked as I raised a fist full of mud.
With a grunt he pulled his hands free and shoved me to the side, and began hurtled mud at me. I scrambled up, only for him to pull me back down.
"Truce," he said.
"How about we just go?" I asked, careful not to say truce so I could still have a small chance to splat some mud on him.
He shook his head. "Say it," he said.
"Sure," I muttered. He stood up, and offered me his hand. I pulled my legs out of the mud, and reached out for his hand with my injured but still clean hand. With the other, I grabbed a plod of mud, and threw it at him. Before it even hit him, I was up and running. I made it out of the swamp and looked over my shoulder to see how far I was ahead of him.
When I didn't see him, my heart sunk. He had used his invisibility so he could sneak up on me. I turned back around, and sprinted as fast as I could forward, running in a zigzag pathway so he couldn't throw it at me. I swerved in and out of the trees, and made it just out of the forest and onto the road when I was hit with the mud.
"Do I win yet?" Fang asked from somewhere a bit further up the road.
"When you can beat me back to the house, you win," I said. I grinned at him over my shoulder. He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. Then he took off.
He has longer legs and is about 8 inches taller, but I can still beat him any day. We hadn't cut slits in our shirts for two reasons: first off, if something happened we were not leaving my mom there at the paintball field; and secondly, we didn't want them to be noticed by anyone if we got shot the wrong way and it pulled our shirt over so you could notice the slits. Thus, the reason we were running.
I focused on going as fast as my legs could move, and hoped to whatever deity controlling this was messed up world that my super speed was effective on the ground as well as in the air.
I felt myself speed up, and up, and up until I was sure that my legs couldn't go any faster. The trees were whipping past me so fast that I couldn't even tell exactly how far I had gone. I slowed down to my normal running pace, and saw that I was nearly at the house.
I looked behind me, and couldn't see Fang anywhere. I took a deep breath, and slowed to a walk, noticing how my legs felt like they were made of lead, rather than light, hollow bird bones. I stopped at the front porch and decided to wait for him to show up so I could make some smart-aleck comment.
Just as I sat down, Fang walked out of the woods right in front of the porch. "Finally decided to show up?"
Fang's shirt was off, and wadded in a ball, thrown over his shoulder, and his wings were stretched out behind him.
"I got here before you," I said stubbornly, refusing to look at how toned his midsection was.
"Maybe if you had run a bit faster, and not walked," he replied cockily.
"So what, you flew?" I asked, wondering why the heck he was torturing me with his shirt off.
He nodded.
"Well then you cheated, because I can't fly," I said.
"And here I thought you were 2% bird," he said, smirking.
I frowned. "I meant, I can't just whip my shirt off and spread my wings like you can."
"And why not?" he asked.
"Because!" I exclaimed, exasperated.
"Because is not an answer."
I sighed, shook my head, and walked towards the door. When I opened it, everyone was lounging around on the couches.
They looked at me, and Gazzy snorted. "What happened to you? Get in a fight with a swamp… and lose?" he chortled.
I gave him my best 'not amused' face and he stopped laughing immediately.
"We were looking for a place, and there was a giant sinkhole," I lied sounding smooth as ever. "So I'm getting in the shower to get this nasty mud off."
I walked down the hall without waiting for anyone to say anything and grabbed a towel from the hallway closet.
I knocked on the bathroom door, and got no reply, so I opened the door and stepped inside. Closing the door, and locking it, I closed the lid of the toilet and set my towel on it.
I pulled my shirt over my head, and pulled my shorts down. I turned to turn on the water, and out of the corner of my eyes I noticed my form in the mirror.
There were large purple and red welts welling up all over my body. The most noticeable were the welt the size of a tennis ball right on my chest, and the welt on my arm that was just smaller than the one on my chest, but darker in color.
I sighed. Even mud wouldn't cover those up. Once I thought about it I remembered that Fang had some big red marks on various parts of his chest too, where he had gotten hit by paintballs. I hope he has enough sense to cover them up, so nobody notices them, because that couldn't be passed off as mud…
A/N hi guys. I am back, updating again. Sorry it took so long, even if it is summer. I was on a few vacations, and I got some really bad news.
I'm not going to say the bad news, because it isn't something I want to post on the interenet, nor talk about. But, it made writing hard, because it really hit me deep down.
Then, when I could write properly again, I finished the chapter, sent it to my editors (Thanks Miz636 and Miromyth!) who usually edit my stuff very quickly.
Three days later I still hadent gotten it back yet, so I checked my outbox to see if they had gotten it yet. It said I never sent it, because there were problems. So I sent it, and then the next day Miz returned it, but I was already gone for my 4 day vacation at the Sand Dunes. So I got back late last night, went to sleep, went to drivers ed, got home… and now I'm updating.
So, basically, I am sorry for not updating sooner, but here is the next chapter, and I hope you enjoy it.
