Chapter 6

Dr Reilly watched as Blaze finished writing in his journal. He was there to observe Blaze's behavior, how he would react to his new home. So far Blaze had been co-operative. Blaze had never been co-operative in the past. They usually had to restrain him to do anything. Reilly watched as Blaze placed away the journal and got up off the bed.

"Shall we retrieve his journal Dr?" One of the security guards asked.

Dr Reilly ignored the question. He had seen Blaze's face in the mirror. It had been pale. Why? Reilly thought. Then it hit him, something he had said to Blaze earlier. I had brought up old memories best left forgotten. He had been annoyed at Blaze's inattention. That was why he said it.

"Dr?" the guard was waiting for an answer.

"Leave it alone for now," Reilly responded, "It is only a journal, after all. What harm could it do?"

"Understood sir!" the guard returned to his post and Reilly continued to watch Blaze. He is unique, Reilly thought, one of a kind. If only he knew how special. Dr Reilly turned away from the screen and walked out of the room. Blaze will soon learn why he is here, Reilly thought, but for now, ignorance is bliss.

Chapter 7

I got up off of the bed and approached the screen that the sunlight was shining through. How can there be sunlight? I thought, we're underground. I pulled aside the screen and stared out upon a huge expanse of plains, meadows and… Orchards? I stared up at the sun shining down from a blue cloudless sky. How…? I saw a flickering above in the sky. Something wasn't right. I focused on the flickering patch. It seemed to darken, then clear. I watched closely and then I figured it out. It wasn't real. The Sky, the sun, they weren't real. It was all an illusion, a hologram.

I heard the door open and turned around to see Dr Reilly standing there, looking at me.

"What is this?" I asked, "I know it isn't real, so what is it?"

"What you see below," Reilly explained, "Is a cavern, fully enclosed with a self sustaining environment."

"In other words," I replied, "you managed to create a completely isolated 'Garden of Eden' underground."

"Yes, pretty much." Reilly said, sounding smug, "The environment is full self sustainable because we control the weather here. We were even able to introduce animals into the environment without negative effects." Reilly looked smug about it and I took a guess.

"You created this environment to include people like me?" I asked sounding surprised.

"That's right." Reilly answered, "The environment is specifically designed so that you could live within it and it would not collapse."

"So that means I'm allowed to fly freely around down there and no-one will stop me?" I replied, still not quite believing it.

"That is the idea," Reilly said, "although it will only be allowed during your free time, when you are not doing training or school work."

There it was again, 'training', but what sort of training.

"Are we allowed to go for flights?" I asked Reilly.

"Sure. Training will begin tomorrow." Reilly informed me, "Be in the briefing room by 0900 hours. You'll find out why you're here."

About time, I thought, they wanted something major from us otherwise they wouldn't be so nice.

I stepped out onto the balcony and spread my wings to their full extent. A small breeze was blowing. They even control the wind, I thought, interesting. It brushed against my face, soft and inviting. It ruffled my feathers and begged me to release my earthbound restraints. To flap my wings and be free. That was exactly what I did. I jumped off the balcony and began to free dive towards the ground. The air was rushing past me, howling in my ear. My heart was pumping, beating faster and faster as the adrenaline began to course through my veins. I flared my wings and my speed reduced quickly until I was flying within reaching distance of the tree tops. I closed my eyes and beat my wings in a steady rhythm, slowly using the warm air current to raise myself into the air. I felt my wingtips brush something and realized I was near the roof of the cavern. I had risen pretty quickly. I looked down and realized that the cavern was quite large. It would have been around fifty miles long by about twenty wide. I was probably cruising at around a thousand feet in the air. Pretty impressive, even for mad scientists.

Chapter 8

I was cruising along like that for about five minutes before I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I twisted my head to get a better look. The shape was large, larger than a normal bird, yet it had wings. I decided to get closer and have a better look so I began approaching the figure. It definitely had wings and it was definitely human in shape. It was a girl, about ten years of age. She looked like she was dancing in the air. She twirled around and saw me. She stopped when she noticed me and let out a cry of surprise. I began to fly away. She was afraid of me. I didn't want to scare her. I hadn't expected to see anyone as young as her here. She was definitely only ten years old… too young.

Something slammed into my back, sending me flying. Is it even possible to be sent flying when you are already flying? Apparently so. I soared through the air and began to fall when the second person attacked me again. I glanced up at her to se she was also a girls, around my age. She was also good at fighting. I fended off her blows, but couldn't get my wings open, she was in the way. I did the only thing I could have done in this situation, I folded my wings right back, into my body, and plummeted like a rock. She was surprised by the move and floated for a second before following me. As I was about to hit the tree's, I spread my wings and slowed myself down. Not fast enough. I slammed into the canopy of leaves. Disorientation set in. I was surrounded by leaves and branches, no way of telling which way was up and which way was down, then I passed through and saw the ground too close for comfort. I flung up my arms and crashed into the ground. All went dark…

Chapter 9

The first thing I thought was I'm alive. The second thing was why? And the third thing I thought was why do I hurt all over? I heard whispering nearby and opened my eyes. I stared up at the canopy of leaves and remembered what had happened. I sat up quickly, my body protesting, sharp pains stabbing at me, brining me back to reality quickly. I heard rustling above me in the trees and looked up. The girl I saw earlier was watching me warily from behind the other girl, the one that attacked me. I looked up into her face. Startling blue eyes gazed back at me. She was definitely around my age, maybe a couple of months younger. Her wings were pure white with a faint silver sheen over the feathers. She actually looked quite stunning with her golden brown hair framing her face. Not the time to be thinking about that, Blaze, I thought, she tried to kill you. I turned my attention to the younger girl. She had dark, emerald green, eyes which looked back at me shyly. Her wings were white with flecks of green and brown through the feathers. She had the same golden brown hair as the other girl. There sisters, I thought, that's why she attacked me, she thought her sister was in trouble. The older girl spoke first.

"Why did you attack my sister?" She asked.

Talk about jumping to conclusions

"What?" I responded, "I didn't attack her, I was trying to talk to her. She probably got freaked out by my sudden appearance."

She seemed to accept the explanation, although was still wary of me. I noticed the body language and asked, "Why are you wary of me?"

"You just survived a fall from at least a hundred feet, without any broken bones or serious wounds. I have a right to be wary." She responded hotly.

"Good point," I replied.

It seemed to calm her down. I was thinking about that as well. Images flashed through my mind. The canopy of leaves, the branches, the ground. I had flung up my arms to protect myself and seemed to hit a wall of cushioned air that slowed me down. Then I hit the ground hard. That was when I blacked out. The wall of air had saved my life. But where had it come from...?
I swore silently. This was the last thing I wanted.

Chapter 10

"He slowed down before he hit the ground," the younger sister said, "I saw him do it through the trees."

"Be quiet Terra!" the older girl commanded, "We don't know if we can trust him."

"Skye, he's one of us." The girl called Terra said, "We can trust him."

"Skye is it?" I asked, "You younger sister Terra was telling the truth. I did slow down before I hit the ground. It was my ability."

"What, you can slow down?" Skye asked, "That's Impressive."

"What are you, sarcasm incarnate?" I asked, "It's my Telekinesis. I was able to throw up a wall of cushioned air to reduce my speed."

"Impressive." Skye replied, "I have never met anyone with that ability before."

"Well now you have." I replied, "Along side the Telekinesis, I also got Telepathy…"

I trailed off as faint whispers entered my head. They entered my mind like fog creeps through a town. I heard different voices, different thoughts. All of them weren't nice. One thought came to the front of my mind; it was saying time to play.

"Are you ok?" Terra asked, "What's your name anyway?"

"My name is Blaze," I answered, "I'm fine, but you have to get out of here, both of you."

"Why?" Skye asked.

"Yeah," Terra piped up, "Why do we have to go?"

"Because little puppies want to play." Skye looked at me confused, "Erasers are on their break and they feel like toying with us. Go!"

Just then new thoughts entered my mind. The thoughts were scared, panicked. I listened closer to the thoughts. I realized that they belonged to someone like me, someone with wings. Whoever it was, was being chased by the Erasers. Got to keep running, have to stay away from them. Damn can't fly, the Eraser must have clipped my wing. I listened to the thoughts and was able to tap further into his mind. I could see where he was.

Turn left, I told him.

What the? He responded, who are you?

Just turn left. I thought back. He turned left and continued to run through the trees. Now turn right.

Where are you leading me? He asked.

I'm leading you to me, I replied.

I broke contact as I heard him come running through the trees. He came crashing into the clearing and stopped. The kid looked to be about ten. He had light brown, short hair. His wings were grey and white. He was sweating from the sprint through the woods. His hair was plastered to his face, hazel eyes gazed at me.

"Were you the one talking in my head?" He asked.

"Yes, I was," I replied, "now if you don't mind duck."

The kid ducked and I threw a thick stick into the trees where an Eraser came rushing out of the trees. The stick smashed into the Erasers snout, he yelped out of pain and crashed to the ground. The other four Erasers came out of the trees and surrounded us. The Leader stepped out of the trees and I recognized him right away. I was the one who had given him the scar down his snout. It was Lucas.