Chapter 26

I heard the creak of the trigger being pulled back and reacted at the last second. I rolled to the right while drawing out my gun. As I fell I lifted it up and shot Steven, All of this I did on instinct, all before he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit him square in the middle of the chest, killing him almost instantly. I remained flat on the ground, staring disbelieving. I had just killed someone. The others came down from the trees and started cleaning up the evidence we had been there, but left the body to be found. That was our orders. I gathered my stuff from the tree I was in and got ready to leave. As I was climbing down from the tree I heard someone approach from behind. I drew the gun and pointed it at the person. I turned to find Terra standing there and lowered the gun.

"Don't sneak up on me," I ordered, "next time I might shoot you."

"Sorry," She apologised, "I have to talk to you."

"About what?" I asked.

"About why you are taking this so personal," Terra replied.

"And that would be why?" I asked, getting annoyed.

"The trees told me the discussion you had with Steven," Terra said, "I'm sorry about Max, Blaze. Don't let the death of your mother affect your judgement. I know you are a kind person who has led a rough life, don't turn yourself into a killer. Max wouldn't have wanted that."

I sighed, "You right Terra. My mother, Max, and my father, Fang, were killed by this man, but he was only a puppet on a string. It's the real killers, the ones who gave the order, they have to pay. I do not wish to kill them, but if given the chance, I don't know what I'll do."

"And Terra," I continued, "Please don't tell the others. Not yet. I'll tell them when I'm ready."

"Just don't keep it from them for too long," Terra replied, "It's not a good way of gaining peoples trust, believe me."

"I believe you. It's just that I'm still getting my head around it."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. When the white coats introduced me to Skye, I couldn't believe she was my sister. I finally accepted it. Now we're inseparable."

I smiled another rare occurrence. Terra was always good at cheering my up. She always seemed to act older than her age.

"I better make the call." I said, pulling out a satellite phone and dialling the Training Academy, "Reilly will want an update by now."

Terra nodded her head and walked back to the tree she had been hiding in, probably to pack her gear. Killing was not the business a ten year old should be doing.

Chapter 27

I dialled the number Reilly had given me to contact him. It was the number for the Academy. The phone rang once… twice… Thrice… Then someone finally answered.

"Hi, welcome to the Academy. How may I help you?" Reilly's secretary asked.

"It's Alpha," I said, "put me through to Reilly."

"I'll patch you through right away," The secretary replied.

The line went quiet as the secretary patched me through to Reilly. A moment later He came on the line.

"Have you completed the mission?" Reilly asked.

"Yes," I replied, "The target has been taken care of. We'll be returning soon."

"I have another target for you," Reilly informed me.

"Who?" I asked.

"Senator James Johnson," Reilly replied, "He's in the area."

"How do you know he was involved in the killing?" I asked, beginning to get suspicious.

"Blaze, when will you begin to trust me," Reilly said, "I am trying to help you get revenge on the people who killed you parents."

"I'll only believe you," I said, "When I find out how you are able to find the people involved. It's a bit suspicious, considering Steven didn't even know who hired him."

"We have been tracking Stevens bank accounts," Reilly explained, "and that is how we came across the payments he received from the ones who killed your parents. They have been crafty and paid the sum in separate accounts and in small sums that would not cause suspicion. The only ay we took a look into them was because he had not other connections to the people paying him."

"I'll take care of it." I hung up.

I hate this, I thought, I'm doing everything the white coats want me to. I felt like such a betrayer to all the experiments out there. The people we vowed to never obey the whitecoats, now I was following their orders. Talk about ridiculous choices.

I'll take care of it, I thought, if I want to survive to see another sunrise.

Chapter 28

If there is one thing you must know about me is that I hate killing. I could never willingly kill a person. But then again, this is all against my will. I refer to them as targets. It helps me to become detached from the killing. I'm not making excuses; I have to kill to survive. I normally would rather have died, but in these circumstances, I will stay alive to protect the others. All the experiments. I don't know how many there are, but I have a feeling that even if we get citizenship, we will still be under the white coats control.

I walked back to the group as they finished cleaning up. The all stopped as they saw me approaching. They could tell something was up.

"We have another target." I informed them, "Reilly confirmed that a senator in the area was one of the people paying Steven. The information should be coming through on our wrist pilots."

Wrist pilots were sort of like palm pilots except you could attach them around your forearm and they work almost exactly like a computer. A beep signalled the arrival of the information. Everyone looked to their WP's and read the info. Senator Johnson was a greying, middle aged man who was beginning to bald. He house wasn't far from our current position, maybe about five minutes flight. The only thing I found unusual, was that there was no mention of any relatives, live or dead, or whether anyone lived with him in his household. I decided to take this slowly, something wasn't right.

"Alright everyone," I said, "Take this one slow, something isn't right about it."

"I agree," Drake responded, "Something isn't right."

"Alright," said, "gear up and let's go."

We all geared up and were ready to go in two minutes. Our bags were designed not to restrict our wing movement. They were actually quite comfortable, which I found disturbing considering that they were full of weapons. I ran down the road to gain enough speed to lift off and spread my wings. The breeze lifted me off the ground and raised me up into the air, the rest of the flock followed close behind. We flew west for about five minutes until we spotted the senators house. I slowed to a stop and hovered in the air, looking for a position to shoot from. It would be easier than breaking in, killing the senator and fighting our way out. There would also be less killing.

After a few moments I saw a building about two blocks away that would do. I gave the others the signal to fan out and cover the mansion, for that was what his house was, a mansion. I landed on the building I had sighted and pulled my pack off of my back. I reached into the backpack and pulled out a sniper rifle. It had been modified for our special vision. I assembled it and loaded the bullets into the magazine. As I did this the others reported in to confirm that they hade the mansion covered. I sighted the mansion and found the senator in the living room on the bottom floor.

"I have eyes on the target," I stated through the ear piece, "I'm taking the shot."

I squeezed down on the trigger, preparing for the recoil of the gun when the bullet was shot. I squeezed the trigger tighter, so tight that the width of a hair was the only thing stopping the bullet from being fired. A movement caught my attention. I watched closely as a woman walked into the room, a little girl, around the age of nine in tow. I released the trigger. They were his wife and daughter.

Chapter 29

I was not going to kill the father of the family. Reilly could forget it. Just then my WP went off and I nearly did shoot the gun.

"Blaze?" Drake questioned, "Are you going to take the shot or do I have to."

"I'm not taking the shot," I replied, "no-one is. The guy has a family.

"And?" Falcon asked, "We have to follow Reilly orders."

I ignored the last question and looked at my WP. I had an incoming call, the caller was unknown. I accepted the call and the corners of the WP folded out revealing hologram projectors. This was new, I thought. An image flickered into being and I recognized it instantly.

"Are you seeing this?" Falcon asked disbelieving.

"Yeah," Terra replied, "I just can't believe it."

"I can't either," Skye replied

"This is new," Drake commented, apparently amused. I didn't reply, I was too busy looking at the picture of my sister.

"Blaze? Do you recognize her?" Skye asked, clearly confused.

"Yeah," I replied, "It's Flame."

"Your sister?" Drake asked.

"Let's just listen to what she has to say," I said.

"Blaze," Flame recognized me, "do not kill Senator Johnson. He had nothing to do with the murder of our parents. You have all been duped."

"Do you know who did it?" I asked.

"No," Flame replied, "but I might be able to find out."

"Thanks," I said to Flame, "We can't return to Reilly but we have the little problem of these." I raised my wrist and revealed the bracelets to Flame.

"I can help you with that." She replied. Her imaged disappeared and the plans of the bracelet came into being. I examined it and saw there were only two weak parts of the bracelet and both couldn't be destroyed by a normal experiment. You would have to use a machine. Or something else.

"Thanks again Flame," I said, "I owe you one."

"Just find the people who killed Max," Flame said, "That's all I want."

With that she ended the call and left us alone on our separate roofs. But now we could be free. Because of Flame, we could be free of the Academy, of the assassinations and be free of all the lies and deceit. We could finally find the truth out for ourselves.

Chapter 30

We had flown to an abandoned warehouse about twenty minutes flight from the Senator's mansion. It was run down, covered in graffiti and had windows missing from their frames. Holes were scattered all over the roof, letting the faint light of the stars barely light the place. The steel doors were still standing, but probably wouldn't be able hold back an Eraser. All of us were nervous, waiting for the bracelets to activate and injecting us with the tranquilizers or expecting Erasers to show up at any time. Let me tell you, that isn't fun.

"I looked at the plans. There is no way we can break the bracelet." Drake was explaining to the group, "They specifically made it so that no experiment could break it."

"Well they didn't count on me," I replied.

Everyone looked at me surprised.

"What do you mean Blaze?" Skye asked.

I decided to tell them about my other ability. The one where I could summon spirits and fuse with them. Technically spirits are only part of what I could summon. Angels and Demons were possible as well. Practically anything that was a paranormal entity I could fuse with. I told them everything I knew about my ability, the good and the bad. Then I told them how I could destroy the bracelets.

"It could work," Drake backed me up, "it's better than letting Erasers capture or kill us."

"Bu there is the risk he'll lose control." Skye said. I could heal minor wounds, but I can't bring back the dead."

"It's a risk I'm willing to take," Terra said. I was surprised at that. I thought she would be with her sister. "I'd rather have Blaze kill me than the Erasers. I would rather have him, one of us; kill me, than one of those rank, disgusting, slobbering idiots."

"I'm with Terra," Falcon decided, "Blaze, are you sure you're up to it?"

I took my time in answering Falcon. I truly would never be ready for doing this. But then again, I had no choice. It was the only way I could save them. I had to do this, even if it killed us all. I was going to transform and try and destroy the bracelets. Skye would then heal the slight burns. The only way I could see of destroying the bracelets was to melt them. I finally let out a sigh and nodded my head.

"As ready as I'll ever be."