Chapter 31

Reilly watched the satellite footage of the scene outside of Senators Johnson's mansion with interest. Even with the threat of death, Blaze still disobeyed orders to free his flock.

He's just like his mother, Reilly thought, only she lived in more peaceful times.

Reilly switched off the monitor, he had seen enough, he knew what would happen next, Flame would contact him, tell Blaze all Reilly knew, just like they agreed.

I think it's time to take a leaf out of you book Blaze. Reilly entered a password into his computer that would release a virus into the system and destroy all the data he had on Blaze and the others. Freedom is the only way to live, He thought, Blaze, you showed me the way.

He was through with taking orders from the people above him, of being forced to lie to the kids. He was through with it all. He would rather risk his life for something he believed in, rather than wasting away obeying orders he did not wish to carry out.

I can't believe it took me so long, he thought, to finally see the truth. The world will have to accept us for who we are. Reilly finished packing his stuff, which didn't take long, and looked around his room a last time. He shook his head. He couldn't believe that he had lived in such a small space for so long. He wanted open space, freedom.

A pounding on the door bought his thought together. He walked over and opened the door to find a squad of four Erasers outside the door, Lucas in the lead.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" He asked.

"I'm leaving this place, for good," Reilly replied.

"No your not," Lucas sneered, "The director wants to see you."

"Tell him to get lost," Reilly replied.

"He said I could use force if I had to," Lucas informed Reilly, a grin on his face.

Reilly sighed, he had no choice.

"Lead the way." He finally answered, "But I'm not leaving my bag behind."

He followed Lucas down the corridor, the other Erasers boxing him in so he couldn't escape. He'd find a way to get out. He just had to wait.

They walked him down the corridor to the elevators and piled in. They then rode it up to the private offices at the top of the building, where the Directors office was. The elevator doors opened onto a luxurious office which was furbished with polished wood chairs, a desk and a grandfather clock. Behind the desk was a painting, one Reilly didn't recognize. The entire office reminded him of an office most likely found in the Whitehouse. Standing behind the desk was the Director himself.

"Ah Jack," The director recognized him, surprising considering that the director never bothered to learn his staffs names, "we have been in need of a chat."

"Director," Reilly said curtly, "Just what is this about?"

"It's about the computer virus you set loose into the system. I was accessing the files you had on your computer about Blaze and the others when all of a sudden, my computer crashed. Can you explain that?"

"Yeah. I'm finished with doing your dirty work. Leave the kids alone. We should not be ruining their lives for your ideas. They're only kids. If you want your Ideas realized, do them yourself. I'm getting out."

Reilly didn't wait for the Directors answer. Instead he rushed straight for the nearest window and smashed his way through the glass. He began to fall and ripped his coat off. At the last minutes he got free and spread his wings and levelled out bare meters above the ground. He flapped and began to gain altitude, listening to the screams of the Director. Gunshots rang out as Reilly flew off, finally free.

But for how long, he thought, and for what price.

Chapter 32

The abandoned warehouse was ideal for what I was about to attempt. It was dark, dank, smelly, damp and isolated from civilisation. The only way I could see to destroy the bracelets, was to melt them, but in doing so, I could seriously harm the others. I didn't want to summon the guardian of earth again. He was the one that I lost control to, the one that destroyed part of Eden. I could have used him to break the bracelets easily, but he was so full of rage at the human race, for their disregard towards the planet that sustained them. I know how he feels, but still I fear him. I hoped I could control the power of the spirit I was about to fuse with, otherwise god help those in its way.

"Blaze?" Skye asked, "Are you ok? You look a little pale."

"I'm fine," I replied, "just not looking forward to fusing with a spirit that has more destructive power than the last one I fused with."

"I hope you know what you are doing," Drake said, "I don't fancy dying yet."

"Neither do I," I replied, "Now let's get this started. When I start the fusion, stand at least three meters away from me."

"Why?" asked Skye.

"So if I lose control, you might have a chance to get out of here. It has happened in the past, that's why I hate using my powers. And don't surround me, that just makes it worse."

I just hope that what happened the last time I lost control doesn't happen again. That thought I wanted to forget.

"That's a lot to remember," Drake said.

"It's just precautions in case I lose control," I replied, "Let's get started."

The others backed off to about five meters and I began to steady my breathing into a rhythm, steady and persistent. I focused on the spirits, their energy signatures, and found the ones I wanted, I could always tell them apart. They all had different feeling about them. The spirits of fire always had a smell of ash about them, and they always tended to like being noticed by those who could see them. I focused on one of the spirits, and called to it, for some reason, when I called spirits, they had to come. I called out for it, felt its power and absorbed the power. I immediately felt the changes begin. My body temperature rose a few degrees, hair turned black, eyes red. My wings began to change colour, the pattern of flames spreading across the feathers. My clothes began to smoke, the temperature getting too hot for them to handle. My fingernails turned into claws, not very long, but sharp at any rate. The changes stopped, I still remained mostly human, the spirit must have once been human, but got twisted by his rage. He was surprisingly easy to subdue. I realized that I was kneeling on the ground, the pain of the changes subsiding. That was always the part I hate.

"Blaze?" Skye queried, "Is that you?"

Chapter 33

I rose slowly from the ground, my limbs aching from the transformation, my wings included. You would have thought I would have expected that. Each transformation was different depending on the spirit fused with. I ignored Skye's question for the time being as I stretched my limbs. The others were still expecting a reply to Skye's question.

"Yeah," I replied, "It's me, don't worry."

The others relaxed, both physically and mentally. I could tell by the way all their shoulders dropped and by the way they seemed willing to come closer to me.

"How do you know it's a spirit of fire?" Asked Falcon, he had been quiet recently, not speaking much. Sometimes I wondered what was going on in their heads. I didn't bother prying, that would be rude.

"I know it's a spirit of fire," I said temperamentally , "because I can tell the difference between the spirits. I've been hanging around them longer than you have. In fact I don't believe you have ever met a spirit, have you?"

"Alright," Falcon said, holding up his hands in surrender, "no need to blow a gasket. I was only asking."

"I should have gone off my tree at you," I said, "this spirit is overly angry. I suppose that is the reason why it ended up as a fire spirit. Anger, hatred and passion are the three main emotions fire represents. I can tell that this spirit has anger management problems."

"Enough discussion," Drake interrupted, "we need to get these bracelets off of us before the academy figures out we've gone AWOL."

"Fine," I replied, "who wants to go first, mine melted off when I transformed."

The others went quiet. No-one was willing to be the first to test my theory of melting the bracelet off then having Skye healing the burns. I decided to try a little bit of psychology on the others.

"Suit yourself," I said, breaking the silence, "I'm not hanging around with you though. The academy is bound to find you if you keep them on. I don't want to go back there."

"I'll go for it," Skye decided, "Since everyone else here are cowards."

Skye held out her arm to me and revealed the bracelet. I raised my hands and placed them on her wrist wrapping them around the cool metal band. My hands grew hotter, bursting into flames. The metal band began to grow hot under my hand, the metal glowed a dull red colour, then brighter as I increased the temperature. I was trying to focus the fire onto only the bracelet only, to keep from harming Skye too much. She endured the pain. The metal grew white hot, then melted off of her wrist. Most normal humans would have been screaming from the pain. We had endured pain sometimes better, sometimes worse than what was happening now. The bracelet dripped off Skye's arm, leaving a bright pink burn mark. I had managed to keep most of the heat on the bracelet without seriously burning Skye. She placed her hand, glowing white around the burn mark, and healed the burn. The others, once they realized they wouldn't be seriously harmed, decided to go through with it. It was better to put up with a moment of pain, than to get captured and endure a lifetime of pain. After about ten minutes everyone had their bracelets in puddles on the ground and their wounds healed by Skye.

"Blaze," Skye noticed I wasn't looking to well, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine," I replied, "Just a bit exhausted."

I searched for the power of the spirit within me and found it. It focused on it and de-fused, letting the power drain out of me. My wings returned to their normal colour, hair brightening back to the original brown with streaks of gold through it. My hands returned to normal, claws turning back into fingers and my body temperature dropped back to the normal temperature. I was down on my knees again. I really hate transformations, I thought, they always take so much out of me, and they are painful.

I tried to stand up, to keep myself from collapsing from exhaustion. The world swam and down I went anyway.

Chapter 34

Skye watched Blaze out of the corner of her eye. There was something he wasn't telling them. He was looking pale and unwell. She had finished healing the burns on the others and watched as Blaze transformed back to himself. He tried to raise himself off the ground but collapsed, unconscious, on the floor.

"Blaze!" She shouted, "Drake, Blaze has just collapsed."

"Collapsed?" Drake replied, "Why?"

"I don't know," Skye replied.

She bent down aver his face and listened for his breath. He was still breathing, that was a good thing. She tried to wake him, even tried slapping him on the cheek, nothing could wake him.

"What could have made him collapsed?" Drake asked.

"None of us have eaten properly in a while. We have been too busy doing our mission. You know we require more food than normal people."

"Quiet," Terra interrupted, "something is moving outside, I can hear it."

"Can you tell what it is?" Drake asked.

"Yeah, it's humans," Terra said, "wait, that can't be right… Erasers!" She shouted. That got everyone moving. They all moved away from the entrances and circled the unmoving form of Blaze.

"Whatever we do," Drake said, "don't let them take Blaze."

"And I thought your heart was made of Ice." Skye commented back.

"It might be," Drake replied, "I just don't believe in letting one of our kind falls into the hands of the Erasers."

"I agree with you there," Skye said.

The sound of doors breaking bought them back to back to the Erasers smashing their way into the abandoned warehouse. The first came crashing through a broken window, already halfway transformed into a wolf. Drake saw it and began to attack it, keeping it away from Blaze. The second and third managed to smash their way through the metal door and came charging at the others. Terra and Falcon charged back, rapidly giving the two erasers a rapid succession of spin kicks, keeping them busy. They always hunt in a pack of at least four, Skye thought, so where is the last one. She searched around the warehouse, looking for the last Eraser. None of them were ones she recognized from the Academy, although she was certain she had seen them before.

"Skye look out," Drake shouted, an Eraser being strangled in his head lock, "Eraser, behind you."

She twirled around at the last moment to see an Eraser charging at her. It hit her square on before she was able to defend herself, sending her flying into the wall.

The Eraser started laughing. "I thought it would be harder to take you down Skye," The Erasers commented, "considering last time you were quite a handful to take down."

Skye rose up off the ground at the taunting voice of the Eraser.

"If I remember correctly," Skye replied, "You were the one who protected that whitecoat from me, the one that was trying to kill my sister and I. He couldn't wait to dissect us and so picked a fight. I remember your name now… it was Damian."

Chapter 35

"Skye, enough talking," Falcon shouted out, "We have a fight on our hands."

"Leave them," Damian ordered, "I've already got the one we need. The director said he only wanted Blaze. We have him."

The other Erasers backed off, but still surrounded the group, preventing them from escaping. Damian picked up Blaze's unconscious form and began to walk out of the warehouse.

"Put him down," Skye's voice commanded.

"Or else what?" Damian replied, "You'll try and hurt me? You tried once; it didn't work out too well."

"Yeah, you attacked me when I was only eight, real brave of you. You're afraid of me now, because I have abilities."

"You only have the ability to heal, that's not going to stop me."

"Try me." With that Skye charged at Damian, using her wings to propel her forwards faster. She hit Damian square in the chest, sending him stumbling backwards. A normal human would have had a few broken bones from an impact like that; Damian was only forced off balance. He stopped himself from falling over and began to charge back at Skye, leaving Blaze lying on the ground. Damian rushed forward, striking at Skye. She blocked all his attacked, her reaction time had quickened.

This is knew, She thought, I can almost see what he is going to do, like I can sense his life force and where it's going to strike next.

Damian kept up his assault, constantly attacking Skye; she constantly blocked them, infuriating Damian even more. He attacked from the left, blocked, attacked from the right, blocked, the he did a feint and pretended to attack from the right and struck from the left, flooring Skye.

"Still no match for me," Damian crowed, overconfident. He failed to notice Skye's wings turning black, blacker than death. She stuck up from the floor, grabbing Damian around the neck, and began to strangle him. At first Damian began to struggle, fighting to get out of Skye's grip. Now he had done it. Her anger got the better of her and her powers activated, but not the ones she knew. Her hands were surrounded by a poison green-black coloured aura. Skye felt power flowing into her, but didn't realize what was going on. Damian began to fight harder against her, trying to break free, veins beginning to show on his face. Finally he went limp in her hands. Skye could feel no pulse on his neck and realized she had killed him; she had drained the life out of him. She had found the other side of her powers. Here wings turned back to white and she dropped Damian's dead body to the ground.

I killed him, Skye thought, I killed Damian, I killed someone.