Chapter 3
Gazzy and Iggy flew away from the burning apartment building as fast as they could. They flew past the Empire State Building and then landed on a short building right next to it. Both of them were panting. They'd just barely escaped, again, before the building exploded.
"We've got to go back for the rest of the flock," panted the Gasman as he tried to unfurl his wings.
"No," whispered Iggy as he somehow sensed where the Gasman was and put his hand on Gazzy's shoulder. "We've got to take care of ourselves first. And we won't be very much use to the rest of the flock like this."
"You're right," Gazzy agreed, grudgingly. "Did you blow the apartment?"
"No way!" exclaimed Iggy. "That was those flyboys!"
"Speak of the devil," said Gazzy as he jumped into Iggy, pushing them both out of the way of a pack of flyboys. Two of the seven of them crashed head first into the roof and continued through it. The other five pulled up and flew about a foot over Gazzy and Iggy. As they circled around, Iggy and Gazzy took off straight up. The flyboys flew straight towards them. Then Iggy and Gazzy did a ninety degree turn and flew right over the flyboys in the opposite direction. Gazzy grabbed one of them and did a 180. He started flying towards a building. He and the flyboy flew at full speed, holding onto each other, trying to make the other hit first. Then Gazzy did a turn and let go. The flyboy wasn't holding on tight enough, so his fingers slipped of Gazzy and he flew through a window, two walls, and crashed through a window on the other side of the building. Iggy punched a flyboy in one of its eyes, shattering it, then grabbed it and went into a dive. He about twenty feet from the ground he let go of the flyboy and backpedaled. The flyboy wings still weren't good at that maneuver, so it crashed into an electrical box. The box exploded and sent sparks fifty feet into the air, barely missing Iggy. He looked up and heard Gazzy fighting the three remaining flyboys. As he was fighting one, another flew up behind him, made two fists, and brought them down hard in-between Gazzy's wings. His wings went limb and he fell twenty feet onto the top of the building.
"No!" yelled Iggy as he heard the crunch of the two impacts. Then he grabbed an Iggy-made-grenade, which he'd been hiding from Max for the two weeks since the battle at Itex,, and threw it at a flyboy, hearing the whoosh of the wings. It collided with a flyboy's head and exploded. The explosion sent fragments of metal that severed one other flyboy's arm and another's wing. The headless and wingless flyboys crashed down onto the roof while the other flyboy flew, full speed, at Iggy. The flyboy collided with Iggy and rammed him into a brick wall. Iggy hit the flyboy in the face, but it had no effect. Then the flyboy brought its fist back and a sharp blade slid out of a slot on top of it.
Then Iggy heard a flyboy voice say, "Leave him. Get back to base. Go. Go. Go." The flyboy released Iggy and flew away. Iggy fell ten feet into a dumpster. Gazzy flew down and helped Iggy out of the dumpster.
"Good flyboy imitation," said Iggy as he brushed garbage off of him.
"Ah, it was okay," said the Gasman with a lot of fake modesty. Then they heard a window shatter. They crouched and listened harder. A minute later they heard a second window shatter a little ways away. Then Gassy saw and Iggy heard a winged figure fall out the shattered window and fall onto another skyscraper. "Oh no, not another one!"
"No," said Iggy. "Those were real wings." They both took off, Gazzy guiding Iggy by holding his hand. They landed on the skyscraper and looked around, well, Gazzy anyway. Then he saw a punctured ventilator cover. He walked over and stuck his head into it. He stopped breathing for a second. "What is it?" asked Iggy, wearing an extremely annoyed face.
"It's Max!" yelled Gasman. Instantly, a smile replaced the annoyance on Iggy's face. "Wait, I don't think she's awake." He reached down and put his hands on either side of Max's chest. "A little help here." Iggy kneeled beside him and grabbed Max's legs. They lifted her up out of the vent. "This isn't good." Gasman said as he looked over her, seeing all of the cuts from her recent battle.
"Well there's something worse coming," said Iggy as he heard helicopter rotors. A few seconds later, a helicopter appeared right in front of them.