From the outside, a crowd was gathering, horror and strange curiosity on their faces as they watched as the Facility built for the winged children just seemed to start....imploding.
On one side, huge glowing fireballs erupted with a deafening boom, columns of smoke quickly spiraling up into the already churning black sky.
Screams and screeches, hoarse animal like shrieks and a multitude of other hellishly agonized sounds came from the building, and a crackling of the electric fence made them all scramble away from it as quickly as possible.
Sirens were blaring, and the hum of helicopters, the stench of gunpowder and petroleum...
Many were already realizing what was happening, how this place—the one thought to be able to prevent the decimation of the human race—was actually a place that oozed with the stench of corpses and pain.
Experiment Five, Alex, however, walked across the field, seemingly oblivious to what was happening behind him.
He walked fluidly, smiling innocently, humming a nursery rhyme and counting his steps.
Little Alex seemed completely innocent! Except, maybe, for the way a set of huge leathery appendages extended out of his back, bony and curving into dangerous claws near the ends. One of his red eyes continuously darting up , leaving nothing but white to be seen of it.
The crowd gasped and some screamed as he approached.
Alex didn't mind though!
"They want me to play! Play with the demon children!" He chanted under his breath, a voice that sounded more dark and deranged than what a little four year old child could have ever been.
The fighting was hard.
That's all that Tally could really say of it, dropping to the floor to duck a Goblin's punch and going for a sweep kick. The short girl that was her partner quickly dealing the finishing "blow."
She paused in her fighting for a moment, leaning against a wall, a hand up to her chest as dark blood dripped from her lips.
Cookie was holding her own, darting in between the Goblins quickly, brushing her hand on them and moving on to the next before any fighting on her part could happen.
That was her weakness, Tally figured. She wasn't really the tactical type like Fang or Iggy, and she couldn't fight well, so she made sure to kill as quickly as she could. Tally came in and made sure all the stragglers didn't pass her.
"Tally!" Cookie called, her head snapping back and smashing against the wall, a Goblin standing in front of her, already moving towards the quick pixie with it's unnatural darting movements.
Tally launched herself at it, her wings flaring to help propel her.
She wrapped her arm around the Goblins neck, reaching with her other to grab its neck and twist as hard as she could, grimacing when she heard the crack it gave. She leaped off of it and threw herself back into the fray, her wings serving as a shield a good amount of the time.
As if I'm ever going to get a chance to fly again, she thought bitterly, mistakenly moving into a back-bend out of habit and leaving herself open to the slash at her side.
She bit her cheek in pain, kicking her legs up over her head to complete her flip.
Panting heavily, she grabbed the clawed, skeletal hand of the Goblin just as it appeared in front of her to knock her down, and used its own momentum to spin and slam it into the wall. Allowing Cookie to brush her hand against the brute.
Great, now I'm bleeding, gosh this freaking hurts! She thought, her hand latched onto her side, her fingers already sticky from trying to staunch the blood with them.
She fell to her knees, looking up at Cookie as the girl stared down the hallway, frowning.
The winged girl closed her eyes, as if trying to banish the sight of all the blood and ashes from her mind, having a little time from all the havoc to think clearly.
"We're going to die here," Cookie said, crossing her arms and shivering, though it was clearly steaming hot in the hallway from a bomb that went off in the direction the enemy had been coming from. The little girl, though the same age as Tally, looked so frightened. Ash streaking down her face, mingled with black blood and neon green slime. Her short hair stuck up in all directions. Red streaked down her calf, already drying.
Tally nodded her head. We're going to die soon either way...she thought, a slight burning beginning behind her eyes. She sniffed a bit, holding back her tears.
But then her head snapped around, hearing a sound. A whole lot of thumping on the ground.
Her clouded gray eyes stared in fear, her heart beating so hard the sound of her pulse began to be the only sound she heard.
"Holy hell what the heck happened here?" screeched an all too familiar voice. "Did you guys turn all the Goblins into dust bunnies or what?" Nudge asked.
Tally grinned, letting her head fall forward, her long black hair curtaining her off from her family. They came back...
"Of course we did, you idiot," Iggy said, having come over to crouch down by her. "We can't let you two have all the fun, can we?" He placed a hand on her shoulder, flashing a smile that could have outshone the Sun.
And Tally latched onto him, tears flowing down her dirty face. She laughed, so so happy!
At least...at least she wasn't going to be alone when she died! She hated being alone. And as selfish and horribly grotesque as it sounded, little Talon Ghost wanted to die with her family...not alone in a place so creepily similar to where she was raised.
Fang watched on as his sister hugged Iggy, a bitter sweet scene.
Then his eyes wandered to Kaiden and Cookie, who seemed to be duking it out more than ever, the girl screeching about how incredibly stupid and harebrained it was to bring the flock back, while he retaliated by saying that it was irresponsibly and freaking moronic for her to have thrown herself headfirst into battle.
Gazzy got annoyed quickly, Angel holding onto his hand tightly.
"They're just relieved to see each other," Angel said, her gaze wandering towards Total, who seemed to be content narrating everything under his breath, little doggy ears flat against his head. "But they're too stubborn to show it to each other."
"Igs, I think you shouldn't hug Tally that hard, she's pretty banged up," Cookie said, looking ready to strangle her boyfriend.
Iggy let go of Tally as soon as the words left Cookie's lips, but Tally kept holding him, ignoring the pain as best she could.
Sometimes she was thankful Iggy couldn't see.
That way he'd never see her hurt.
"Tally, let go, and let me see what's wrong," Iggy said softly into her ear, brushing back her hair.
Wings are torn to shreds, same with side, left leg a bit mangled, all in all, the other guys got the short end of the stick, she said, her lips twitching up a bit. They're those piles of ashes you all seem to be standing on.
"Tal—" Max made to say, but was quickly interrupted by a shriek that came from down the hall.
"We need to get out of here," Cookie pleaded, all color draining from her face, she snatched Kaiden's arm, looking at him with a desperately wild emotion. "Please, we need to get out, we need to get out or they'll kill us all!"
"Wha-what?" Kaiden questioned, taken aback. He was under the impression that his girlfriend was one of the strongest experiments there was. Why was she so scared?
"That's the smartest plan I've heard all day," Max said, nodding at Gazzy and Nudge. "Guys, set that on fire, Nudge, pull away the metal, I'll work on forcing it forward, got it?"
"Got it!" Nudge and Gazzy said, moving forward with determined faces.
They worked diligently, and Tally pushed herself up, clamping her hand on her wound and letting her head rest against the wall.
"Keep resting," Iggy muttered softly, reaching out for her other hand. Tally silently stared at him, noting the little tear drops she had left on his blue shirt.
That same sound sound Cookie heard, only closer, made her push off the wall quickly, standing in front of everyone, wings out to touch each of the walls, ready for the enemy.
No, there are things to be done...she braced herself, letting go of her wound and holding her hands in fists. Either the enemy that was coming to bulldoze them over was going to get a very bird style knuckle sandwich, or they were going to find their spleen, liver and brain painted all over the wall.
"You guys almost done?" Fang asked, materializing behind his sister.
Angel picked up Total, "Come on! We can get through! The thing that's coming is thinking scary thoughts!"
No one needed to tell the frantic and childlike Cookie twice, because she practically flew out the still smoking hole, pulling Kaiden behind her.
"Tally! Angel! Gaz! Nudge! You guys next!" Max called.
Tally, not really wanting to get another injury, courtesy of their lovely and gracious leader, decided to hoof it, and get out of there as soon as the last of the kids was out.
The sight that met her outside, though, wasn't all that much better than the blown of hallways she had seen inside.
The crowd gasped when they saw winged figures climbing out of the side of the Facility, a whole mess of them, then watching as they darted across the field. It was thanks to the News Stations that they were able to see that far off, even hear what the children were saying.
"Why don't we fly out of here?" the dog (the crowd was dumbstruck at this) crowed. "It shouldn't take more than a leap to go flying over those fences!"
"Hey! Remember! We don't have bird wings to send us flying over stuff!"
A short girl with curly hair responded, taking what looked like a polished gun from a holster on her thigh. "No! There's a barrier, remember? These places were constructed to keep every type of mutant shipped here inside! If it was that easy we'd have a mutant president by now!"
The girl everyone recognized as Maximum Ride (though gaunt and weary as she looked now) slid to a stop, skidding on the ground, her flock following her actions. "Shit! Another mutant!"
The dark haired twins stepped up, the girl more injured than the other, putting on determined faces as they spotted the creature that had crawled in front of the fence of the Facility less than fifteen minutes ago.
"Kaiden! Back off! This is a mutant fight, if you involve yourself, you'll kill yourself!" the short girl commanded, shoving the gun she had been wielding at the taller man.
We all readied ourselves for a fight, in front of the little boy.
"Experiment five, Alex, four years old, bat hybrid, unstable, seventh floor, North Wing, Section 8, Hall E, Cell three—one of the more dangerous and uncontrollable experiments," Kaiden recited off the top of his head, voice shaking a bit.
He'd taken a bit of Martial Arts, but enough to keep up with kids who had been on the run their entire lives, or who knew they could kill people at a moments notice? No, that was just suicide.
The little boy stood in front of everyone, ambling up to them with a completely relaxed and otherwise innocent gait.
Gazzy twitched a bit, something he picked up from Tally, waiting to set something on fire. As much as he hated it, in their lives, it was either fight or flight. Here, it was fight or die. So he'd fight and live to see the sun set and the moon rise into a sky filled with twinkling stars. Or even hear his sister laugh again.
Nudge was concentrating, trying to decide whether or not it was possible for her to heave the huge metal barrels scattered all over the lawn at the kid.
Max, though, watched the boy with a stony face.
"You get to play with me!" the boy, Alex, said, grinning and revealing shark like teeth.
Fang blinked out, going invisible and maneuvering around the little kid with bat wings that held onto the ground.
And before they even had time to predict anything, the boy was in Angel's place, the baby of the flock and Total were skidding across the lawn on their backs, huge clouds of dust following them.
From there on out, it was pure war.
Max, tackled the kid with her own supersonic speed, having pushed off the ground and activated it in a split second. She followed up with a quick punch in the kids face
"Gaz! Ring of fire!" Fang growled out behind him, moving to help Max as she took a nasty kick. Alex flipped up to his feet, using that same momentum to spin around with his wings flared out, using them as if they were swords.
Gazzy nodded and concentrated, moving his hands out, but giving a frustrated yell when only steam rose from the ground. "Can't! Too much water!"
Cookie darted across the field, jumping up onto the little boy and trying to get a good handle on him, but getting angry when he evaded her hands without hesitation. Dodging left, right, up, down and then giving her a swift kick in the gut when he seemed to get bored with her.
"Guys! We have more coming in!" Iggy called, his eyes looking down at the grass.
And like some strange Zombie or Science Fiction movie, little holes in the ground opened, more copies of the little boy, Alex, pushing through, gleaming red eyes seeking out their "playmates."
"CLONES!" Nudge hollered, already dodging back and seeking out Gazzy and Iggy.
Tally was off retreating Angel, picking up the smaller girl. Tell Total to get to Kaiden and find a secure place, near the gates, tell him to find us a weak point or an open gate!
As soon as Total was darting across the field, the many mutant boys completely ignoring him, Tally set off with her younger companion.
Angel stopped, focusing her sights on two of them, her vision going blank and the boys stiffening.. "Go play with the electric fence," she said evenly.
And the boys walked over to the fence slowly, but surely, after a little bit, crackles and screams erupted, along with the smell of burnt flesh and hair.
Tally, however, was having a good time letting her powers run rampage.
She ran across the field, albeit drunkenly, ignoring when one of the mutant boys managed to hack at her, and merely blowing up limbs as revenge.
"Urgh!" Iggy grunted, falling to the floor, protecting Nudge. The Alex Clone poised to strike down on her boyfriend.
And Tally wouldn't take that. She had fought too hard, both with Iggy and for him, she had ran too much, she had survived through too much to see one of the few things, one of the few people that made her happy vanish.
No.
"I-I-i...!" she gasped, pushing herself to run across to him, despite the condition of her wounds. She threw out her hand, "I-i-ig...!" she froze the Alex Clone, falling to her knees in front of him. "Iggy..." she said softly, her throat burning intensely.
"You spoke! Oh my God Iggy, Tally spoke!" Nudge yelled happily.
"Tally?"
"Iggy?" she responded, albeit coarse and slowly, tripping over the g and making it sound like "Ih-gah-ee."
Iggy beamed, in the middle of the battle field.
Right as a claw appeared through her stomach and she vomited a waterfall of blood up. Her eyes were wrenched in horror, her mouth twisted open, teeth stained a coppery color.
"Iggy..."
And Tally fell onto her boyfriend, stunned.
We fought for as long as we could, that is until out backup came.
Fang was beside me, fighting as much as he could. As soon as we had found out that Tally had fallen, we swarmed around her and Iggy, allowing him to tend to her wounds while the rest of us fended off the little clones.
Our back up came in the form of several military vehicles completely demolishing the fence, Kaiden having managed to turn off the electricity on that, but not having had enough time to try and figure out the barrier that would have fried us all if we tried flying.
We were thrown into the back of a medical vehicle, the crowds dispersed, and what I thought were tanks began rolling through to the Facility, jets zooming over us. Thanks to my mom and Jeb, Pro-Flock and the CSM, I found out later.
But did we care?
No, we were focused on our fallen members.
Gazzy was burned himself badly, Angel was sporting quite a few puncture wounds from narrowly avoiding claws, Fang was practically hacking up his liver with all the coughing he was doing.
Cookie and Kaiden were pretty banged up, but in another car.
And Iggy was all but torn to ribbons from trying to defend Tally for those moments when we were all far away from him, not really having noticed her.
The sky was positively frothing, ready to burn the earth to a crisp with lightning. Ready to drown every inhabitant with rain.
I looked at Tally as the medics hovered over her, trying to stabilize her. Her wings gleamed below her, practically black with all the crimson that had dried on them.
Yeah, I wasn't about to tell them that she was going to die soon anyway.
The blind bird boy who had her hand in a fierce death grip would sooner rip my head off and use it as a fuse for one of his bombs.
The hospital didn't have much to say to us.
We all demanded to be together, some crawling onto beds with another, and we all got unsettled with the thought of being too far apart, so the nurses and doctors settled on turning one of the larger rooms they had into a sort of nest for us. The beds were all pushed together so they were near enough that it fulfilled our need for closeness, but not too much as to disrupt the monitors and IVs that we were hooked up to.
All of us stabilized, in and out of surgery (under heavy sedation), and left to wake up and rest from our injuries.
I held Fang's hand, moving to brush my lips against him.
"This has got to be the worst week we have ever had," I said, letting my head fall against his shoulder. I was on his bed today, hearing the steady beat of his heart.
Fang chuckled darkly, "Don't jinx it."
