"Ugh..." I groaned, holding my head. I frowned, realizing my hands were unbound, and tentantively opened my eyes. I groaned again and closed them, blocking out the sight of a cage from my view. I hadn't been held in a cage for a year, and it brought back painful memories. My pounding headache didn't help, either. I realized that my gloves, boots, and vest were all gone, leaving me weaponless, defenseless. And not so much...myself anymore.
Finally I faced the horror of the cage and sat up. I winced as I jostled my wing, which was bound to keep me from bleeding to death. I looked at the other cages I could see - two were occupied, each by one of the experiments I'd been hunting. One was the girl, of course, the other was a boy, also a few years older than myself. He had dark hair and eyes, while the girl had blond hair and brown eyes. She looked a lot like the girl from my dreams, except she was older. No longer ten.
The experiments glared at me and I shuddered. Only Dad had ever given me that intense of a glare and it made me nervous. Made me feel like I did something wrong. And every time I did something wrong, I got beaten, since apparently pain was supposed to help me learn. "Why were you attacking us?" the girl growled silently, as if scared to be overheard.
"It was part of my orders - to find and capture all of you and bring you back. Dad said I had to. It was my first mission - I just wanted to make him proud," I muttered. "And I could get killed if I defyed him. It's been that way for a year." The experiments traded looks.
"Who's your dad?" the boy asked.
"A guy called Jeb Batchelder," I answered. The girl took on a shocked look. "What'd I say?" I asked innocently. For once, it was real innocence, not fake I-did-it-but-I'm-saying-otherwise innocence.
"A name," the boy said vaguely.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," I sighed. I spread my wing out and rubbed the spot where it had been shot. "I could really use my gloves right about now," I muttered under my breath. It seemed the two experiments were about to say something, but the door opened. A whitecoat entered, looking smug.
"The two Batchelder children and another rouge avian-hybrid," he sneered. Wait...two Batchelder children? I looked between the two experiments. The girl was glowering and the boy remained emotionless. "Master," the whitecoat said, also as if that word was a curse word. "We need to see how well your father trained you."
"Only when I'm dead," I spat. "I may not have any weapons anymore, but I can still kick your butt as soon as you open this God-forsaken cage, just as easily as crushing the front of a car." That was my way of saying, "Just as easy as crushing a tin can." You had to give an exaggerated sense of your powers, to make them nervous.
"If you do that, you could meet the same fate," the whitecoat said. I didn't have a retort this time, and that was a first. Instead I just sat there defiantly, refusing to move. I could be as stubborn as a mule when I wanted to be - I swear I have mule DNA in there somewhere. My cage was opened and the whitecoat waited for me to crawl obediently out.
"You'll die of old age before I obey you," I said conversationally. I saw the girl hide a smirk behind her hand. "Have fun." The whitecoat reached in and grabbed my arm to drag me out. I planted me feet against the front of the cage - there was still a little bit of metal that surrounded the cage door. I winced as the whitecoat threatened to pull my arm out of its socket, pulling back to get it free. He let go and I was sent sprawling backwards, whacking my head against the cage. The whitecoat took the opportunity while I was dazed and dragged me out.
Once I was standing I swung a punch and hit him full in the face. He crumpled easily. I made to help the two experiments, to make them forgive me for my previous actions, when a jolt was sent through my whole body. I collapsed to the ground, trying to escape the electric shock that ran through my body. It finally stopped and I lay there on the cold tile, panting, feeling my hair sticking up on end. My ankle burned - I could feel a band of metal there. Of course. I should have figured that they wouldn't let me walk out without protection for themselves.
I was picked up and carried out of the room. I was strapped to a hospital bed and a wire was attached to my forehead. I tried to break the bindings around my wrists and ankles, but it was a futile attempt. The whitecoats were gathered around a monitor - I saw words scrawling down, images. My memories. They were reading my mind like an open book! Finding out all of Itex's secrets entrusted to me. I growled and thrashed around on the bed. They didn't pay me any attention. One of my bindings on my wrist started to loosen and I slipped my hand out, ripping the cord from my forehead and ending the whitecoat's information stream. Now that caught their attention.
The shock band was activated again and I screamed loudly, cracking the glass on the computer screen. The whitecoats, covering their ears, advanced. One of them risked uncovering their ears for a moment to dig a needle into my arm. I stopped screaming and the world went blank again.
When I woke up I was being carried. These guys loved to knock me out, didn't they? I heard a door open, and then a cage, before I was thrown inside, hard. I moaned pitifully as I hit the metal floor of the cage and crawled up onto hands and knees, coughing harshly. A bit of blood came from my mouth because of the electric shock and landed on the floor below me. I wiped my lips and stayed in that position, shuddering. I looked up and cowered when another whitecoat entered, but they didn't seem interested in me. They were interested in the girl. "Come now, Max, cooperate." Max...the name sounded so familiar. It seemed like it would click any moment now, but it didn't. It was on the tip of my tongue, yet alluded me.
Max and the whitecoat left, leaving me alone - the boy was gone, too. I shuddered and coughed again, and again the door opened. The boy was being led into the room, and then into his own cage, which was locked, before his escort-whitecoat left. "Where's Max?" he questioned.
"They just took her out," I said hoarsely. I managed to control my shaking and sit normally, leaning so that my forehead rested against the cold metal of my cage. "Be glad that you are against Itex."
"Why?" the boy asked. I laughed, my voice rough and terrible-sounding.
"They'd do this to either of you," I whispered, not wanting to speak any more, and motioned to myself. Then I curled up like I had when I was a little kid in the lab and fell asleep in my protective ball.
I woke up with another groan. I hurt all over from the shock band around my ankle that had mercilessly electrocuted me. I could feel my hair still standing on end from the night before. This time I sat up without hesitating - no use trying to wish the whole thing away. That childhood superstition wouldn't work. Max and the boy were both still asleep - Max was thrashing around and muttering to herself. Dad had warned me of it, so it wasn't that surprising.
I leaned against my cage and rubbed my forehead with one hand, the other curling around one of the metal bars. I had yet to figure out how to get out of this predicament, and it would help if I had some contact with the army. Yo, Master. I jumped and smacked the top of my head against the cage. Where are you? The others are worried sick. Your dad's getting kinda stressed, though he keeps ranting about Tyron.
Ranger, you scared the heck out of me! I thought back, trying to calm my racing heart. And I'm stuck in a freaking cage in the Tyron headquarters. Have any ideas on how to get me out of here? With two of the experiments we were tracking? For a moment there was silence, as if Ranger had decided not to answer all of a sudden, then...
I know a way - you'll be out of there within a day. Soldier's promise, he said before leaving me and my thoughts alone again. Even my Voice wasn't speaking up with useful but fortune-cookie advice. I saw Max jolt awake and look around wildly, before quickly looking at the floor of her cage. She frowned then looked at the door expectantly. Nothing happened.
"What time is it? You know?" she whispered. I shook my head and was pretty much vibrating with anticipation. "What's with you?"
"Escape. Within the day," I whispered back. She looked at me skeptically and I put my hands up. "Hey, I'm just repeating from my source - you don't have to believe it. But it gives me something to look forward to." She nodded and we sat in the dark in silence for the longest time. I saw the boy turn over and almost smack his head on the cage bars. "By the way, what's his name?" Max looked like she didn't know if she could trust me, but finally relented. After all, we were both on the same side right now - locked in cages in an evil incorporation.
"Fang," she said simply. Well that solved the identity issue. There's someone coming. You may want to be quiet now, the Voice said helpfully. I gave a subtle nod and closed my mouth. I saw Max doing the exact same. Weird.
The door opened and the light turned on. Fang blearily opened his eyes and sat up, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands. The whitecoat didn't say anything and instead opened up his cage door. Surprisingly he didn't fight against the whitecoats and walked out of the room silently, still not showing any emotion. That kid was wacko.
The whole day we stayed there, Max and me, waiting for Fang's return and our escape. The first came, well, first, and then the latter came just a little after he had been locked up again.
BOOM! The explosion rocked the whole building and I looked around wildly. Fang was smirking, and Max looked ready to spring from her cage on a second's notice. I heard commotion coming from the hallway - shouting, fights, screams. It was terrible. Nerve-wracking. The door was suddenly pushed open and slammed against the other wall. I breathed out a sigh of relief as I recognized one of my army, Ratchet. The cat-human hybrid caught my eye and grinned.
"Been missing you, Master," he said, kneeling down and picking the lock on my cage. I looked out the door, where I could see other experiments running past the door, and the walls had turned red from emergency lights. Ratchet noticed my glance and smirked. "We couldn't resist. A good destraction always helps." He was still struggling with the lock. "How does Nerion do it?" he growled, looking about ready to give up, before the lock clicked and my cage opened.
"Patience," I answered. I ran to the door and looked back and forth. At one end, Erasers were trying to keep anyone from leaving, at the other were whitecoats. In between were the experiments, looking like scared sheep now. "Get them out, too," I ordered, glancing back. Ratchet nodded and started on Max's lock. I heard another explosion. "Who's setting those off?"
"Some other kids we met up with," Ratchet explained, and the lock popped on Max's cage. "Two of them had bombs and, well, those proved as good destractions, too. No one can think straight when they're being bombed."
"Amen to that," I muttered, looking at the blockades again. "Triss going to handle this?"
"Yep. She's waiting for the signal." Fang's lock popped open, too, and he wasted no time climbing out of the cage. I looked at Ratchet, waiting for him to elaborate. "This signal." He let out a loud lion's roar that echoed around the hallway. Max covered her ears.
"Five, four, three, two -" I counted down, before the wall directly in front of us became transparent and tangible. "Go!" I made sure the other three got through it first before following. The wall went solid behind us. A few of the other experiments had made it through before it closed. "Oh, wait! My stuff."
"Nerion has it. He's waiting outside with reinforcements," Ratchet said. "But you can talk to him if you want." He took a headset off of his head and handed it to me. I slipped it on, feeling back in power. While this was going on we were running towards the nearest door.
"How's it going out there?" I asked calmly.
"Master!" Nerion shouted and I winced. "We didn't expect to hear from you this soon. Is everything alright? We're ready to come in if we need to."
"Just dandy," I said with fake cheeriness. A gunshot echoed behind us and a bullet smacked into the wall directly above my head. "Just running for our lives, being shot at by bloodthirsty wolves, the usual." This got a dry laugh out of Nerion.
"We're coming in."
"No need. We're almost there!" I shouted.
"Hit the ground!" Ratchet shouted. I dropped instantly and he pushed Max and Fang to the ground, dropping beside them. A bomb flew overhead and exploded directly behind us. I covered my head as I was showered with debris. And you know what? Inhaling dust wasn't too healthy for you. I started coughing loudly on it as I picked myself up off of the floor. The Erasers behind us were dead - no need to go into details - and two kids were standing in front of us.
"Iggy, Gazzy, you guys okay?" Max said, hurrying over to the two boys.
"Max! We were just coming to help you guys," the older boy said, sounding perplexed. "Who're they?"
"No time to explain. We have to go!" Max said. She nodded towards a hole in the wall from the bomb. I grinned and jumped out, running for the safety of the trees about a quarter mile away. If I could, I would have flown, but my wing was still in terrible condition.
"Master, watch it!" A shadow fell over me and I gulped, looking up quickly. At the last minute I dropped and rolled to the side, avoiding the claws of the biggest eagle I'd ever seen. Its yellow eyes landed on me from up in the air and it moved to dive again. I scrambled up and put on the speed. Again the shadow passed over me, and again I tried to avoid the claws. Empahsis on tried. They dug into my shirt and pulled me away. Fast. I yelped and looked at the quickly receading ground. My only chance was my wings, and those were kind of useless. But it was better than going back to Tyron.
I slipped out of my shirt and let my wings spread open wide to catch myself. I shouted out when the muscles were pulled from the force, and my one wing burned like fire. But I still willed myself to pump my wings towards the trees. Unfortunately, the eagle was smart enough to know it was just carrying a shirt now and turned back towards me. I tried to put on the speed but just lost a couple of feet in altitute. "Not good, not good, not good," I muttered.
"Master, right roll!" Nerion shouted through the headset. Figuring he knew more about what was going on, I rolled. The eagle's talons came within a foot of my head, directly were I'd been. I pulled up, biting my tongue against the pain, and the eagle followed like a guided missile. Unfortunately too, I was the only avian-hybrid in the army, which was one reason why I was the one to lead it.
I did a couple fancy flying moves to try and lose the eagle, but it didn't work. So I just resorted to going as fast as I could towards the trees. It kept pace easily and was starting to gain. Before I knew it, I was over the trees, and the eagle was over me. It dove before I could move and scratched my wings and back. This time I couldn't repress the shout as my wings started to turn from brown to red. I had two slashes on each wing, and two on my back. And I was rapidly losing altitude.
Fifty feet from the ground, my fall quickly slowed. I breathed out in relief for the second time in two minutes as I touched the ground. And staggered right into a tree. "Master, are you okay?" I turned to see Nerion staring at me in concern, his eyes mainly on my bloodied back. He applied a tiny bit of pressure to the wounds and I stiffled a scream. "One of your wings might be broken from the gunshot, the fall, and the bird attack," he guessed. He pressed his gloved hand against my wounds. I felt the two back ones seal up with scars covering them, and the ones on my wings just stopped bleeding. They didn't close up, since the glove couldn't replicate the feathers that would have to grow naturally as it healed. Nerion handed me my gear and I put on my boots and gloves, leaving the vest purposefully off.
"Where are the others?" I asked. Nerion's eyes twinkled.
"Being interrogated by our targets. I think they wanted to ask you a few things. Hey, wait...I thought I saw something on your ankle," he said, a little late, since I'd just put my boot on a few seconds ago.
"Shock band. We'll worry about that later," I assured him. "Lead me to the others." He started to move through the trees, me trailing behind, my wings spread wide - wind went through the slashes since they'd cut right through the wings - and my vest in one arm. I winced every time I moved my wings even slightly.
Nerion led me to a large clearing. Most of my army was lingering at one end, while the other kids were asking Ratchet some questions. "Oi, Master!" he shouted, spotting me. His eyes went wide. "Your wings!"
"I'm fine. Just a couple scratches. No biggie," I said, pretending like it didn't hurt, though that was a lie. He gave me a skeptical look but didn't say anything - the perks of being the leader. I threw my vest to the ground near at tree and looked at the group of six accusingly. Max gave me the exact same stare back. "So we save your lives" - I motioned at Max and Fang - "and your way of thanking us is an interrogation session. Fabulous," I said sarcastically. Ratchet had run off, no doubt to find Nyra, our medical person, in case the gloves didn't have as much of an effect. Like with my wings, for example.
"The way I remember it, you were hunting us down!" Max snapped.
"When you say it that way, you make us seem like the bad guys...but pretty much," I said slowly, nodding. "But I didn't want to get beaten by my dad again!"
"Jeb wouldn't do that," Max said strongly, as if she knew.
"Wanna bet?" I snarled back. She didn't answer and I snorted. "Trust me, I know - I've put up with it for a year. It was that, or get exterminated. I chose to serve Itex instead of die. Though that may be a little far-fetched to you." Max opened her mouth, no doubt to retort, when one of my army ran up to me - Christan, the youngest kid.
"Master, Isle just set a few trees on fire about a half mile away," he said, tugging on my sleeve and pointing to some smoke.
"Tell Ash, Tremor, Tyler, Nerion, Triss, and especially Broker to get their butts over there and put it out!" I ordered. Christan nodded and ran off to the group of six I'd recommended to him, who left only seconds after that, him trailing behind.
"Harsh much?" Iggy muttered.
"Habit. Where were we?"
"You were explaining how you were tracking us down and why," Fang answered.
"Like I said! My dad, Jeb, gave me the mission a couple days ago? Yesterday? I don't know exactly anymore, my mind's all fuzzy. But anyway, he gave me the assignment after I had just gotten by butt kicked by ten Erasers in a simulation. He just said that we were after six kids, and to look out for one that could read minds, and to use or lessons to block from that, and then to bring this mysterious group to Itex. He also muttered something about hoping I wouldn't remember...something, but that much I don't know. And if I didn't do this, and do it right, he'd beat me. Again. Is that enough explanation for you?" I looked between each of the six. The youngest, a blond girl, looked thoughtful. She tugged on Max's sleeve and Max caught her eye. The little girl glanced at me, then back at Max silently. I gave a blank expression.
"You look funny," the other girl snickered. I rolled my eyes but didn't retort this time. Suddenly her eyes went wide. "OMG!" she squealed. "Max, could that really be true? It would be kinda cool and kinda weird at the same time. But it would have to be true, anyway, since he's Jeb's son."
"Mind telling me what she's ranting about?" I asked over her voice. She shut up afterwards and the group traded nervous looks. "Come on, I just explained myself, now you explain what that was about."
"You're Max's half-brother," Gazzy blurted. He covered his mouth and I looked at them in confusion. Then I felt like a jolt had gone through my body, like from the shock collar. Images flashed in my mind, memories.
A little girl looked at me from the cage across from me. She was seven - I was four. She had a couple bruises on her body. My sister caught my eye and looked at me sadly.
Max was ten and Jeb was breaking her and the others out. He left me there in the cage, Ari at the School, too. Both of us watched our father leaving with the bird kids.
Seeing Max on the news in Dad's office, flying away from a football game. The bird kids were behind her.
Hearing about her countless times from Dad, how she was one of the best avian experiments to ever be created. How I was starting to surpass her, however.
I snapped out of my memories, grimacing. Those had been locked away when I was eight! They'd been far out of reach for all that time - in half of those memories that had played in front of me, I hadn't even recognized my sister! Only from when she was three to eleven did I know her. Past that, it was just another figure that the whitecoats had made. I swayed slightly on the spot, my hand on my forehead, but I kept from passing out this time. Now I just had one of the biggest headaches that had ever occured with me. I snapped back to reality and looked at the flock, who were staring at me oddly. I just gave a large sigh and rubbed my head, listening to forgotten memories about her. The truth had hit me, and hit me hard - I really was Max's half-brother.