Chapter 2

The explosion sent shards of glass flying, and a couple sliced my face. I held Angel tight, turning my back to the shattered glass. I heard chopper blades and didn't smell that distinct smell that gunpowder or a fueled explosion leaves behind, so I assumed the chopper's blades caused the windows to implode.

The next moment, I felt something hot and sharp hit me right in my lower back, dead on the spine. I collapsed, but still held Angel tight.

Iggy! They shot you! Are you OK?! Angel screamed into my mind.

If you say I've been shot, and the pain's coming from my spine, that's not a good thing, any way you slice it. I thought back. Suddenly, the world just disappeared. It didn't go black, but it went colorful. I was like, above the scene, watching from the ceiling or something.

I saw me, clutching Angel, an ugly hole in my back. The me on the floor with Angel had no way of realizing there were men in the helicopter, one with a lethal-looking piece of metal. That's right. A gun. Max was whipping her wings out, and god! She was gorgeous! I had missed so much all those years!

Her hair was long and brown, and clean for once. Her face was beautiful, and also clean. Her wings were cream, brown, tan and just stunning. Across the room, Fang was landing a hard punch on a half-human looking robot. Fang was dark. It was almost like Fang was the only one who hadn't gotten color. His hair was black, his eyes were black, his clothes were dark, and his wings were so deeply black, they were almost purple or blue. His face was stony, but his eyes betrayed rage.

Nudge and Gazzy were leaping up, covered in blood and slices from the glass knives. They already had their wings out. They were diving for the bathroom, a window they could escape from. Max dove out, freefalling until she was out of the 'copter's downdraft. Fang made a quick escape too. Angel freed herself from the other me's arms and pulled out her pure, snow white wings.

She looked torn between leaving me there. I was obviously unconscious. The man with the gun pulled the trigger. Faster than I could see, the bullet sped toward Angel. Centimeters from her face, it stopped. Dead stopped. In midair, it just hung there. Everything froze. The bang and flash from the guy's gun froze. The chopper froze. They guys and the robot froze. Even Max, soaring upwards behind the black machine froze. Everybody but Angel froze.

I gasped and opened my eyes. No sight. What a surprise.

"Angel?"

"Iggy? Are you OK?" Angel was bent over me. I could feel her breath. I rolled onto my side.

"No. I hurt and I'm probably paralyzed from the waist down."

"But you can still fly, right?" She was worried.

"I guess," Angel grabbed my arms and helped me up. Sure enough, I couldn't feel my legs, and they collapsed under me.

"Iggy! You have to fly! I can't freeze the world any longer!" Angel started panicking. I opened my wings, my 16 foot wings, and crawled to the window. Angel helped me over the sill. I plummeted down, then my wings billowed and caught air. I soared up, just as the chopper's blades began beating the air again. It felt awkward, my legs dangling uselessly as I flew.

I came up on Max, and grabbed her belt loop. I assumed she looked back, because I heard a sharp intake of breath.

"Iggy! What happened?" She shouted back at me.

"I was shot in the spine. I'm paralyzed from the waist down." Suddenly, a burning pain shot through my whole back and wings. They stopped working, and I raced down, beyond rescue. We weren't very high up, and I was too big for Max or Fang to carry. I was a hundred feet above the ground. I heard people scream. I heard the wind whistling in my ears. I heard Max shouting my name.

"IGGY!! Iggy! Stop!" Her hands were on my shoulders, shaking me. My eyes snapped open uselessly. It was still black. Whoop-de-do for black. I don't get why Fang's so obsessed with it.

"I'm dead! Stop!" Knee-jerk reaction.

"No, you're not! Pull your wings in. You're killing us all. You were flapping your wings like you were flying, and you gave Gazzy some bad bruises. Wake up!" Max slapped my face. I bolted upright in my bed, at Dr. Martinez's house. I reached out and felt up Max's arms. She was tense, and definitely mad. I pulled my wings in, arranging them against my spine. My spine! I felt up and down it. No bullet holes. All good.

I shuffled out of bed and into the kitchen. I smelled pancakes, and assumed either Ella or Dr. Martinez was making them.

"Hey Iggy!" Definitely Ella's voice. Ella. I love that name. I was already such good friends with Ella that I knew her by touch. I stretched, and even stretched my wings too, even though I just had them out. I knew Ella loved my wings. Dr. Martinez did too, because I had the biggest wings, she was fascinated with the feather size ratio or some stuff like that.

I reached my hand out, and touched Ella's arm. I pulled her into a bear hug. She squealed and laughed. I heard the Gasman walk in. I could imagine his mouth dropping when he saw me hugging Ella. I smiled and let Ella go.

"Wow," he said.

"Breakfast's ready!" Ella said. She handed me a plate of pancakes. She gave each of the flock a huge helping of breakfast as they came into the kitchen. Once we were all sitting around the breakfast bar, Ella sat down with her much smaller portion of the pancakes.

"So where's Mom?" Max asked.

"She had to go into the clinic early. Some emergency with a cat or something. I heard a lot of noise in there earlier. What happened?" Ella asked conversationally as I cut my pancakes up.

"Iggy had a nightmare. He was apparently flying and falling. Kept flapping his wings, and hit me in the face like ten times. Then he started yelling about death and black." Gazzy said, an edge of annoyance creeping into his voice.

"Oh. If I had wings, I would be really scared of falling, too." Ella said.

"I'm not scared of falling, it's just that I was shot in the back. I was paralyzed, and couldn't move my wings." I said defensively. I didn't want the flock thinking I was scared of falling or anything like that.

"For someone who was paralyzed, you were flapping an awful lot." There's Fang, always quietly pointing out the flaws of life.

"Thanks. You try having that dream and see if you're not scared." I snarled at Fang. I could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

"Guys, quit it! Iggy, you're about to knock your milk over." Ella said, pulling my arm back.

"Sorry." I said, blushing. I pulled my arm back and went back to spearing my pancakes and eating them.

"Okay guys, we've got a busy day of new choreography for the air show ahead of us. Be ready in ten." Max said around a mouthful of pancake, sounding incredibly German. I snorted into my milk as Gazzy imitated her perfectly, nailing the accent.