The Angel Experience
By Holly-Batali
Disclaimer: I do not own Max Ride, I do own Kat.
Chapter 12: Inside
"Got it yet?"
"No, stop asking."
"Fine. How about now?"
"No! Now shut up so I can concentrate."
Kat sat up against the bars of her cage, one claw inserted in the lock on her cage in an attempt to open the door. Her eyes were raised to the ceiling while she wiggled her claw around, listening for the pop of the lock. Nudge and the Gasman kept a lookout while Iggy listened for any approaching noise. Nudge was asleep and Max and Fang were talking in low voices, frowning in concentration.
Kat ignored the pain in her claw as she searched the interior mechanisms of the lock, face pressed against the cold iron of the thick bars.
"Uh oh," Iggy whispered suddenly. "Erasers at eleven o'clock."
"I've nearly got it," Kat said. Then the lock popped. "Yes! I've got it, guys!"
Kat froze as the erasers walked in. The eraser in front was the one she was interested in. "YOU!" She screamed at him. Then she let out a fierce yowl, sounding like the tiger whose DNA she had, and leaped at him, unlocked door flying wide open. The two of them fell to the floor, grappling. Kat slashed wildly at his face, shredding any part of him she could get to. Kat could barely hear the other erasers and the flock through the pounding in her ears. This was the eraser that had killed Feng Chi, and she was going to pay it back in full. The eraser was swearing profusely as three more erasers pulled Kat roughly away. She screamed insults and swear words at him in Chinese to the point where the flock was grateful English was their only language.
"YOU KILLED FENG CHI!" she finally screamed in English.
"You'll pay for this," the eraser growled at her, wiping blood away from his mouth and nose.
"I intend to pay in full," she hissed back at him, eyes slitted; she struggled against the erasers until they threw her back into her cage.
"Bring 'em all to Lab 7," the eraser said in a low, dangerous voice.
Kat was still and silent as they brought the flock and herself to the lab. She was still seething as they dumped all their cages in a corner, making sure the door to Kat's cage was pressed against the bars of another cage, Iggy's. The erasers all walked out of the lab, saying amongst themselves that they needed to inform certain scientists that they needed for experimentation. When the door slammed, Kat sighed contemptuously. "Tā shì dà naí niŭ hé tā de māma—"
"Kat?" Nudge interrupted.
Kat sighed again, this time more patiently.
"Ita?" Yes?
"Who's Feng Chi?"
Kat was silent for a moment. "He was sort of...he was like your Jeb; he was my lǎoshī, my teacher. Except, he didn't turn out to be an evil slime-ball."
Nudge was silent. "Oh."
"And they killed him," finished Max.
"Yes, he's dead."
"Well," max said, "at least this solves one problem; we're in. No need to worry about infiltrating, I guess. Now all we need is a good plan and an escape route."
"Yeah, that'll be easy," Fang said sarcastically.
"Shut up, Fang," Max muttered.
"Uh, Kat?" said Iggy, whispering to her. "What was all that Chinese stuff you said about his mom?"
"Um, nothing," she said slowly. "Just be thankful that you don't know Chinese and that Nudge cut me off when she did."
Authors Note: Once again, apologies for not posting chapter twelve sooner. I've just got over my writers block for my stories, but now I have a writers block for fanfictions.