Chapter 35
Everyone in the flock looked to Max for some sort of signal, never missing how she looked over everyone in the room and how they were all coming up with some sort of weapon.
"Fight or flight?" Total asked, his head popping out of Fang's backpack.
Max looked up at the warehouse and Tally thought she heard her muttering "Aerial attack."
Max whirled on them, "Okay, we're fighting! Try and help out as many kids as you can, and take down as many Goblins as you can! Remember! The eyes!"
And that was all the incentive anyone really needed, the Pyro Trio melted into the crowd, pushing through to the Goblins and immediately attacking, yelling out tips on killing and everything.
"Can we use the Shy Guy, Iggy?" Gazzy asked, ducking and tackling a girl with a flimsy looking plastic bat before she was nailed.
Iggy grunted as he landed a roundhouse kick on another Goblin, destroying one of its mechanical eyes. "Maybe, Gasser! Just don't aim for any kids!"
Tally gave the Goblin she was fighting the coldest look she could summon within herself (which didn't take much effort considering she had the slight burning twang in her chest and head to remind her) and managed to slide under it clap her hands down on it's eyes, sending the goop spurting over a bunch of kids.
They need to get out of here! They don't know what they're doing! Tally thought frantically, shoving another kid out of the way and taking the full force hit of the Goblin's claws against her stomach. Ow! Dammit!
"Tally! You all right?!" Iggy called, side stepping and punching another Goblin.
Yeah, I am. Just protecting these humans is going to get us killed unless we figure out something to do. And quick, she thought, charging at another experiment, surprising herself when her arm didn't sink through when she socked it in the mouth.
And from the muffled choking sound it made, it didn't anticipate her hitting it either.
But she took advantage of it and slammed the heel of her foot to its chest and then gave two kids a nod of approval when they smashed its eyes with some pipes.
She limped away, looking for Iggy and the rest of the flock through the crowd, blood falling into her eye.
"There's more outside! We can set the bomb off out there!"
"But how are we going out there?!"
Tally gritted her teeth and staggered when she felt the distinct tearing in her back, her vision turning red with rage when she felt the cold air washing over her back and wings, another knock taking her wig straight off.
She whipped around like some avenging valkyrie, fully aware of the way her exposed wings and back were getting so much attention, and took an eight foot leap onto the Goblin, smashing and eye and watching the glass shards fly around her like in slow motion, red goop spurting all over the place.
But like always, the Goblins started thrashing, flinging her off.
She landed on her feet skidding but went straight back to it, getting it's other eye with her elbow, feeling an animalistic surge of pleasure fill her veins when she saw it fall to the ground motionlessly.
She still heard the Gasman and Iggy asking out loud how to throw their bombs.
Iggy! They've seen my wings! Just fly dammit! She thought, unfurling her large wings and giving two good flaps to get her airborne.
"Holy shit! It's one of the flock!"
"Who's that?! Is it Max?!"
"No! It's got to be Talon!"
"Maybe it's Fang!"
"You nitwit! It's clearly a girl!"
"Lizzie! Oh my God! It's Talon Ghost!"
"Holy crap! And that's Iggy and the Gasman over there!"
Tally bit the inside of her cheek to keep down her pain before she swooped over the dark mass of squirming fighters and started helping a girl fight.
"Tally?!" the girl yelled. Lizzie, they had called her.
Tally jerked her head 'yes' before ducking and swiping the feet out of the Goblin in the same fluid movement.
Lizzie grabbed her steel baseball bat and swung, the bat going through its skull and popping straight out, completely in tact. The eye rolled on the blood sodden ground, the red shining until some teenaged boy stomped on it.
The Goblin's mouth strained against the stitches, revealing the darkness inside as it made a painful sounding screech.
Talon winced, smashing its other eye with the heel of her boot when she noted grimly the missing skin on her knuckles.
Lizzie smashed the red eye with her sneaker, making to look at Tally but she was already gone, off in the air with the rest of the flock.
-
How many times was she going to say this?
As many times as she attempted to do the right thing, she just screwed up more. Just a fact; it was like how she knew if she felt a festering itch on a wound, it was infected.
She had flown up to the catwalk, tucked her wings in before she smashed through the gritting pane of window that was hardly three by five with her elbow, the Gasman and Nudge in tow.
She hadn't really paid attention to whether or not the rest of the flock was with them when Iggy set of the bomb somewhere and that was her mistake.
There was a bitter taste in her mouth as she opened her mouth and breathed in the earthy smell of trees and moss, the unsettling rattling of leaves, the cold air hitting her scantily clad back.
And because there was a bitter taste in her mouth, she didn't bend down to kiss the ground.
Not to mention it was positively filthy and was that some sort of animal poo over there?! Gross.
She frowned, leading Nudge and Gazzy away from the area, keeping her ears open for the signature flapping of the rest of the flock, the yapping of one Shakespeare-wordy Scottie.
Somehow one of those good-thing bad-thing situations.
Good because she knew they were all right; bad because she just knew she was going to screw up again somehow.
Tally looked around the forest, and when she was satisfied that they weren't infested with hunters (or at least that section of the woods) she pulled off the remains of her gray sleeveless shirt and started ripping it to pieces. Not really caring that her top half was only covered by a purple bra.
She pulled Gazzy to her softly, washing away the blood on a nasty looking cut he had on his arm with her water bottle and her sleeve. Then she staunched the blood with a strip of her shirt.
She tried to ignore the bruises on his face and peppering his body and went to Nudge, repeating the process.
The silence was killing her slowly.
She shook her head and looked over her shoulder, trying to see the wound where she felt blood dripping from.
She scowled and simply wetted some strips and wrapped them around the small of her back, ignoring the rusty smell she had grown so used to over her short fifteen years.
"What do we do now?" Gazzy asked Tally.
She resisted the urge to look at someone else for an answer, and the urge to shrug as well.
Instead, she tried miming out her plan of action, trying to be as animated in her gesticulations as she usually was.
We find the rest of the flock.
She popped out her contacts, and stowed them in her bag, (what use did she have for them now? Her wig was lost in the scuffle, and even more people knew about what they looked like. It was a complete fail-fail situation.) and then pulled the "PRO-FLOCK" t-shirt out of her bag.
"But how are we going to find them?" Nudge began. "I mean, they can be anywhere right now. For all we know they were captured and we're the only ones left on the outside."
"Then we save them," Gazzy said. "We never split up. Remember? Max and Fang promised to never split up."
Tally squelched the urge to ask when the heck that had happened and settled for shaking her head like a dog so that her bangs fell into her eyes, then pulled the rest into a loose ponytail.
She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. What to do next?
Talon remained silent, waiting hopefully for her boyfriend's voice to tease her, to make a sarcastic remark or something along those lines.
But all that reached her ears was the wind whistling softly through the trees, and the distant thunder that marked how far away from the Goblins they had flown.
"What do we do now?" Gazzy repeated, turning to Fang's twin.
She fixed her eyes on him, then slowly to Nudge, before hefting her pack up…and then everything went blank.
Talon panicked.
She could feel her body.
She could hear her heart beating.
And she was well aware of all her thoughts.
But it was as if her consciousness had been pushed to the back of her mind and she was out of control.
Her body turned around jerkily before she forced herself to the front again.
"Tally! What's wrong?" Nudge asked; both her and Gazzy fisting her hoodie with wide eyes.
She blinked, What the hell was that?
Something had taken control of her.
She thought long and hard, flashing Gazzy and Nudge what she hoped was a reassuring smile before she surreptitiously pulled her hand out to balance herself against a tree, the bark biting into her scraped palms.
She trapped her lower lip between her teeth, biting lightly.
There was only one person she knew that could control someone so effectively.
The first person who ever even attempted to communicate with her.
Angel?
-
"Where are they?" Iggy asked, almost scowling. "Weren't they behind us when we ran away?"
"No," Fang said. "Tally was up on the catwalk that went around the warehouse. Nudge and Gazzy followed her."
"At least we know they weren't captured," I muttered. Rather, at least we know they weren't captured at that point. They might've been ambushed or something.
"Fat load of good that does us," Iggy said, raking his hand through his hair, and then reaching up to pick at a band-aid on his cheek.
"Just chill out, Iggy," Fang told him, taking out the contacts and his wig with a look of disgust. "They'll turn up."
I turned around to look at Angel and check if she was all right, but she had this glazed eyed look on her face.
"Angel?" I called, kneeling down to her level and placing my hands on her tiny shoulders.
She mumbled something under her breath and Total nudged her shin worriedly, not uttering a word.
After a few tense minutes in which both Fang and Iggy made there way over to us, Angel's eyes defrosted and she looked at us all with open confusion.
"I didn't know I could use my power when she was so far away…" she mumbled.
"What?" Iggy said.
"Nudge or Talon?" Fang asked, opening and closing his fists.
"Tally," Angel said, picking Total off the ground. "But I think she actually fought back or something…usually, I make people want to do what I tell them…but it was….weird…"
"Do you know where they are?" Fang asked calmly.
Angel wrinkled her nose in concentration for a moment before sighing, "No. She's out of my range again."
I nodded before getting back up, my hand still on her shoulder.
If Tally was going out of her range then that meant that we would have to walk in the direction she was going.
"Do you know which direction she was in, at least?" Iggy asked.
"No," Angel said slowly. "Mind controlling and reading doesn't come with a mental map, Iggy."
Iggy opened his mouth, to say something scathing probably, but closed it and his eyes, taking a deep breath.
At least he was learning some form of self control.
-
Tally led Gazzy and Nudge into town, the smell of car exhaust and gasoline almost immediately assaulting her senses.
Nudge actually started coughing, waving her arm in front of her face, "Yuck, why can't these people just buy newer cars? Or try to fix them"
Gazzy said, "Not everyone can afford it."
Nudge huffed, "I know. Just a thought, you know?"
Tally nodded, scanning the area carefully, the way Jeb had drilled her to at the Facility, and then the way Max had ground it into her head.
They never stopped moving, instead, Tally pulled out a piece of paper and wrote her plan out for Nudge to see and then showed Gazzy.
"Oh! That's sneaky!"
"And gross! Why do I have to do the voice?!"
Talon repressed the urge to roll her eyes and simply pointed at her scarred throat.
"Oh."
They gathered in an alley, crouching in the shadows as Nudge made sure none of Tally's wounds showed, going over what she would say.
The elder girl felt disgusted with the plan, but she would cope.
Movies had never failed her before, so she could rely on pick-pocketing some guy……
Which worked out pretty well.
She had taken the PRO-FLOCK shirt off and left her hoodie zipped up part way, showing the a tad bit of cleavage, and Nudge had practically beat Gazzy until he got the voice down. ("Think Madonna! Think Audrey Hepburn! Think Angelina Jolie!" "I don't know those people!" "URGH!")
Fang's twin scouted out the people walking by, until she found one that seemed like a good vicitim.
He was an average looking man, in a pressed charcoal suit, five-o-clock shadow and slightly graying hair. But why had she chosen him of all people? Because she had caught him putting cash into the front pocket of his jeans.
I feel like such a prostitute…she thought as she flash the man a smile. "Hey, what's happenin' handsome?" Gazzy threw his voice, Tally moving her lips.
The man seemed to immediately take an interest, even though it was obvious Tally was decades younger than him, no matter her stature. "Business," he nearly growled.
Tally winced internally but kept up the volleying.
When she had quickly stolen the money (tricking him with a scene she had sent him) she made to back away.
But the sleaze bag clamped a hand on her shoulder and ran his hand down her side.
And as soon as his hand ghosted over the curve of her butt, she reared her knee back and smashed it into his groin. Frickin' pervert!
With an indignant huff, Tally turned around, completely satisfied with the fact that the man was now writhing on the ground, whimpering in a pathetic high pitch voice.
And thanks to her wonderful strength caused by genetic engineering, she probably just ensured that the perverts line had ended right there and then.
-
"What the hell is she doing?" Iggy asked aloud when he heard Tally's distinctive voice floating echoing in his head, I feel like such a prostitute…followed by Frickin' pervert! two minutes later.