NOTE: I don't particularly like this chapter, I think it choppy and pathetic, but there will be more action in the next chapter. I may or may not post chapter thirteen at the same time as chapter twelve but it all depends on the reviews and/or messages I get. Plus 'tanqs' is short for tranquilizers in Fail's term

Chapter Twelve

The flock and Fail had all settled down around the fire, Max on the opposite side of Fail with daggers glowing in her eyes. They had all suggested ways to knock out security, the guards, Erasers, and whitecoats. They had all made their own plans of ways to figure out where they kept Iggy, they had compared them, and had chosen which one would work the best.

Fail pointed out where the outside cameras were on a makeshift drawing she had made in the ground. She said that in order for them to reach and disable those cameras they would have to fly.

That plan was immediately abandoned since the flock had no intention of going through the front, but from the roof.

So the plan was set, the flock would get in by the roof, like they did the previous two times, and go to the control room to find where Iggy was in the building. There was no mention of Fail doing anything to help them find Iggy, that was how Max preferred it, and that was how it was going to be.

"So, we ready to take off?" Max asked as she stood to look at the faces of the flock, ignoring Fail who was glaring at her with menacing yellow eyes. All the flock nodded, Fail stood up and crossed her arms over her chest and watched as the flock spread their wings to launch themselves into the sky. She would follow on land, though, something in her mind doubted Max would let her go.

Once the flock was in the air she turned and started towards Florida, towards Itex, towards the blind avian boy. Max watched her intently before turning to the flock

"We'll fly by speed" she said "to get there faster, before they do something to Iggy"

"But" Nudge spoke up "What about Fail?"

"She didn't say she'd help us in finding him, she has no spot in the plan" Max replied through gritted teeth.

"Now, everyone hold on" and so the flock linked arms with each other as Max spread her wings and activated her fast flying skill, then, they were off.

Fail couldn't believe her eyes. She watched as the flock linked arms with each other, watched as Max spread her wings, then they were gone. She racked her mind for any mention of this skill of Max's, then, she recalled Iggy saying something about it once. She groaned and smacked her forehead with her hand.

"Idiot" she said to herself "Just pitiful" she growled before running towards Itex. While she ran, her body morphed into her Eraser form, causing her to run faster than in human form.

But, now everything can't go her way, now can it? No, for once she parted from the forest she was faced with a mile wide bog with a small lake on the other side. Her eyes widened, and instinctively she looked up, just to see a blur of white that must've resembled the flock, but now, they were long gone. She groaned before putting her fur covered and clawed hand onto the ground and preparing to run across the bog as quick as she could, though she highly doubted that she would make it, it was worth a shot at least.

"Well" she took in a deep breath "Here I go" and she sprinted off the solid ground to the murky bog where she sunk if she stayed still to long, but she didn't permit that.

Merc had been whispering in his ear the whole flight to Itex, and Iggy could only listen to the cold voice of the high rank Eraser.

"Ya know, once we get ya back at Itex, we're free to hunt for your pitiful family" he whispered "We're allowed to watch the life drain from their eyes, blind one, we can take Maximum and throw her to a pit of wolves. We can kill them all but I don't think Jeb would allow that, would you?" He chuckled lightly, gripping tighter on Iggy's neck.

"But I think F0873 is free to death" he said, making Iggy tense "I've seen her with you, seen that glazed over look in your eyes when you hear her voice. But next time you hear her, she'll only be screaming for her life and you can't do a single thing about it once I tear out her heart and feed it to the dogs while it still beats and struggles for life" Now Iggy couldn't stand listening to Merc. He elbowed the Eraser in the stomach, causing him to loose his grip on Iggy.

Iggy was falling now, with the pack of Erasers speeding after him. Apparently the ground was closer then he thought, for her struck the earth before he had time to spread his wings. He groaned and propped himself up on his elbows. He heard thuds from the Eraser's landing, then he heard one land practically over him. He was thrown back by a fur-covered hand gripping his throat. He felt claws dig into the side of his neck and the quick breathing of an enraged Eraser.

"Oh how I would love to kill you now" Merc growled, pressing tighter on Iggy's neck. Iggy was fighting for breath, wishing he could gain the strength to fight back, but he was only able to stay still and listen to the menacing voice of Merc as he was sinking into unconsciousness.

"You know what, maybe I could kill you, from the inside out, first your precious flock, oldest to youngest, then the failure, and then I could watch as you destroy yourself so I wouldn't have to put up with you anymore."

That's when Iggy slipped into unconsciousness, and he welcomed it, just as long as he couldn't hear Merc say his threats that sometimes meant something, and that were sometimes completely empty and meaningless, which was awfully rare.

He woke with half his face in a puddle of water, and by the taste, was rich in minerals. He groaned as he pushed himself up from the stone cold ground. But once he stood up he felt light-headed and immediately slumped to the ground, to hear the clank of chains. He felt his wrists to find that they were shackled, with chains leading to the wall. He discovered the same thing on his ankles, plus he had deep scratch marks on his neck from Merc, that were still quite painful. He groaned and held his head in his hands, gripping his hair in frustration as thoughts entered his head.

What happened to Gazzy and the rest of the flock? To Fail? Where are they?

Just questions he was unable to answer as he gazed through his blind eyes. He heard the creak of a door open and one set of footsteps enter the room Iggy was chained in.

"Why, hello Iggy" Iggy instantly recognized the voice.

"Jeb..." Iggy narrowed his eyes in the voice's direction. He heard a chuckle from Jeb, since when did he chuckle?

"Is that anyway to greet a friend-"

"Some friend you are, whitecoat" Iggy growled, clenching his hands into fists. Jeb gave him an inquisitive look with a small grin, even though he knew Iggy couldn't see him.

"Why do you want me? Usually it's Max your after and-" Jeb broke him off.

"Ah... well, you see, Max isn't blind" he said, fingering a case he had in his lab coat "We needed someone blind in order to test one of our inventions"

"Don't you recall" Iggy stood up, using the wall for support "It was one of your experiments for a new invention that got me blind"

"Yes..." Jeb said "But this time it's different" He chuckled again, then Iggy heard him open something with a click.

"Now, just hold still"

"What!" Iggy jolted up right "I'm being held in a cell by people who stole me away from my parents and completely altered the beginning of a normal life, my life, and you tell me to stand still!" He heard Jeb sigh before walking towards Iggy

"None of you give up without a fight now do you." Jeb reached out to grab Iggy. But of course, being able to hear better than others, Iggy heard the shift of Jeb's coat and could sense him reach out to grab him. He lashed out. The chains around him were loose, and he struck his target. He hit Jeb in the chest with his hand curled into a fist. He heard Jeb gasp as his air supply was cut off temporarily and as air caught in his throat.

But then he recovered, and as he recovered, he brought with him an angry glare at the blind fourteen-year-old. He shook his head before reaching for a radio on his belt loop

"I didn't want to do this, Ig" he said, clicking the radio on and speaking into it

"Send me two Erasers, stat" he said, to be replied by a voice filled with static.

"Yes sir" replied the person on the other line. Jeb nodded in satisfaction before turning off the radio and returning it to his belt loop. A few minutes later he heard two sets of footsteps head down the hall, open the door, and head inside the cell. Two Erasers stood behind Jeb who turned around to whisper orders to them, quietly so that Iggy couldn't hear them, even if he was blind with enhanced hearing.

He was caught off guard when one of the Erasers charged at him, striking him in the chest and pinning him against the wall. He yelped and tried to get away from the Eraser's claws, but something closed around his legs, and the other Eraser grabbed hold of his wrist as so did the other with his other wrist to make him completely immobile and against the wall.

"I didn't want to do this the hard way Iggy" He heard Jeb's voice get closer and closer. He heard Jeb pick up something from the floor and dust it off, before a whirring of a small machine echoed in Iggy's ears.

Jeb stepped forward and put one finger above Iggy's right eye, and another finger below and spread the distance between to force Iggy's eye open, no matter how much the blind avian boy fought. He struggled against the Eraser's grip on his wrists and the clamp's hold on his legs, then he gave up and focused his energy and trying to close his eye from whatever Jeb was going to do to him. He felt Jeb place something cold and smooth on his eye, somewhat like a contact lens yet, somewhat different. At first the touch of the thing was cool and soothing, then he felt pain rocket through him as the thing on his eye begun to heat up and do whatever it was meant to do.

Jeb stepped back and nodded to the two Erasers who let Iggy fall to the floor. Once his knees connected with the stone floor he shut his eyes hard and gripped his head in his hand with his back arched. He felt like screaming, shouting at Jeb and asking questions, but the pain caused him to sink his teeth into the inside of his cheek. Jeb grinned in satisfaction before turning around and closing the door behind the two Erasers that left to return to their previous posts. He was grinning widely as he turned back around to face the door to Iggy's cell

"There would've been less pain if you just let it be, Iggy, let it do what it's meant to do, don't fight it." and with that he turned around and headed down the hall, to leave Iggy in pain.

The flock landed on the roof shortly after take-off. Nudge still pondered about Fail as she twisted the knob of the door and pushed against it. Her eyes widened when the door didn't budge. She pushed against it, forcing all her weight against it, and it gave no notion of letting her through. She kicked it in frustration before turning to face the flock.

"It's locked" she muttered angrily. She saw some of the blood drain from their faces

"It can't be locked"

"It is" Nudge growled giving the door another kick that hardly shook it on it's hinges.

"Well... then we'll have to go through the front, unless we find another way in." Max said, pushing off from the roof and going over the ledge. She spread her wings to break her fall as she neared the ground. She landed softly on the side of the building and quickly ducked to the side to crouch down near the gate and blend with the shadows, folding in her wings.

The rest of the flock followed her and soon were all on the ground next to Max, low to the ground. They crept towards the end of the building where they knew two guards and two cameras awaited them. Max was now in sight of the guards, when she kicked a stone and it clattered against the gate. The flock froze, and Max's eyes were wide as she watched the two guards turn towards her. She gulped in fear as they lifted their guns and advanced forward a bit, even though she knew they couldn't see her.

"Whose there?" The guard closest to Max shouted. Of course, no reply. The second guard shrugged and returned to his post.

"Could've been an animal"

"I'll give a test fire then, no harm in death of an animal eh?" The first guard said with a toothy grin. He raised his gun, aimed, and fired at the shadows, directly at Max, who froze in fear. She jumped when something stopped the bullet. A hand was in the way of the bullet's path, fur covered, and black-clawed. Max looked up to see Fail in wolf form, her fur soaked from water and matted by mud. She didn't even wince when the bullet sunk into the flesh of her hand.

"Next time I'll let you run through a bog and a lake to get here, and I'll be the one to give you a pushing start" She said in a faint whisper before going on all fours and creeping towards the guards, who had returned to their posts, oblivious to the glowing and pupiless yellow eyes. She limped slightly from the bullet in her hand, but, nevertheless, advanced on the unsuspecting guards.

She peered around the corner of the building, now standing up on her legs and reached up, to grab the camera above the guards head and silently, tore it off the building, making a small crunch sound. She suddenly dropped on all fours, and prepared to jump. She leaped straight up and grabbed onto the side of the building, about twenty or so feet above the guards. She grabbed onto the camera just above her head and tore it away from the building before throwing far over the gate. She shuffled to the other side of the building and did the same with that camera, then dropped to the ground softly before disposing of the camera above the second guard. The flock watched with wide eyes as she did so as if rehearsed over and over again, even as she lured both the guards to the side of the building, smashing their heads together and dragging the unconscious bodies to the shadows of the gate, with a small grunt every now and then as pain shot through her arm from her hand. Once she hid the guards in the brush she quickly picked out the bullet in her hand with her sharp claws and morphed into human form and crept to the entrance door, opened it, and peered inside. She ducked out of the door to give the all clear motion to the flock.

Max was first to enter the building, followed by Fang, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel, and Fail who softly closed the door behind them. They carefully walked through the narrow hall, avoiding those doors ajar or completely open ,which were rare, and carefully avoiding a cameras gaze. They reached a stairwell, and quickly walked up it till the third story. They reached the third floor easily but when they stepped onto it's cold tile floor, they saw some difficulties. There were definitely more cameras on this floor that were more active than the others, whirring around as they guarded the hallways.

The flock pressed themselves against the wall, being wary of the cameras and cautious of crossing doors that may swing open at any time or moment. Fail, on the other hand, waited in the door way till the flock was out of her way. Once the first camera turned away from the door she burst through, leaped up, and tore away that camera from the wall. She slammed it against the tile and was grinning widely at the flock's shocked expression. She gestured to the doors

"Sound proof" she said.

Max glowered at her, shook her head before continuing towards the control room, still cautious since the majority of cameras were still active and searching for any intruder. Fail was rushing them, going a head at a running start to jump up and disarm cameras. She urged them to hurry up with arm motions and kept mouthing the words 'hurry' to them. When they neared the control room, they discovered why.

Nudge reached for the knob of the door when whistling beat into her ears. She felt hands grab her shoulders and yank her back into a storage closet across the hall. She whirled around to see Fail with a finger to her lips to be quiet. She opened the door a bit and peered through to watch what was to happen. A guard rounded the corner, with his hands behind his back and his lips forming an 'O' as he whistled a simple tune of 'Yankee doodle'. He came closer to the storage closet, and turned into the control room and slammed the door behind him, his whistling drowned away by the sound proof room.

Fail pushed open the door with a grim face and bolted for the staircase before whispering to the flock.

"Now this time hurry to the exit"

"But-" Nudge was about to ask why when the alarm was sounded and a voice echoed in the halls.

"Security breech at entrance, stairwell and third floor halls!" It cried "Security has been breeched!" Slams echoed in the halls as metal blinds shut the windows and doors, preventing escape.

"Hurry!" Fail shouted rushing towards the exit door. She grabbed hold of the knob when they heard several sets of footsteps heading up the metal stairs.

Fail cursed under her breath before turning around and dashing into the main hall. She looked around, watching as the blinds came over the door and windows rather quickly.

"Crud" she growled when the exit door burst open and the footsteps now reverberated in the hall. They all heard the clink of guns, and the shouts of men and women giving orders. Fail looked around quickly, then her face brightened, seeming to just have remembered something. She gestured with her hand to follow her, so the flock did, though they were quite reluctant as she lead them towards the sound of orders and footsteps. She dashed across the hall way that held the exit and the flock heard a voice.

"Hey! Hey you!" It shouted, over and over again as the flock crossed it as well. The flock rushed behind Fail, trailing a bit since Fail was a fast runner compared to themselves. They saw an open window, no, not open, but a broken window. The metal blind was coming down slower than the rest of them and before it could make it halfway, Fail jammed herself in between the window sill and itself. She left space for them and shouted

"Go now!" she was struggling to keep it open as the machine tried desperately to close the window and stop them from making their escape. The flock didn't hesitate. Angel was first, then Gazzy, Nudge, and Fang who all seemed a bit reluctant as they passed Fail who had her back arched as she tried to keep the blind open. She looked a Max who was looking at her, gaping slightly. She gestured to the window

"Go!" She shouted. Max stepped forward and shouted above the alarm

"Thanks!"

"No prob, now go!" Was Fail's reply as she grunted as the machine gave another thrust in an attempt to slam the metal blind shut. Max nodded and slipped through the window, spread her wings and hovered near the window and waited for Fail.

Fail looked at her, closed her eyes and shook her head before giving her a solemn look and stepping out of the window back into Itex. The blind slammed shut, locking Fail in. Max was stunned, she heard Nudge cry out, and Angel gripped tighter on to Total who let out a yelp.

"Is she nuts!" Gazzy yelled, his question left to hover in the air, unanswered. Then they heard Fail shout through the blinds

"Just go! I'll be fine, it won't do us any good if they get you as well, just GO!" Max recognized the last word as an order, not something she could choose to obey or not. She nodded before turning to the flock

"She's right" she announced, receiving attention from the flock and the talking dog "We've got to go before they get us" She grabbed hold of her flock, and flew away reluctantly, peering over her shoulder back to Itex. She sighed before flying away with the rest of the flock, at the speed of light.

Fail turned around when she barked the order to go to the flock. She winced when the light of a flashlight struck her eyes. She held up her arm to shield her eyes. She heard the clink of a few guns and muttered to herself

"Here come the tranqs"