Don't have much to say for this chapter, except to Carrie who said that my fanfic was a little "perverted". I hope your saying that it's a little different from how Patterson writes, and not that this is sexually perverted cuz if so... I have no idea why you'd say that lol xD. One more thing though, I might be wrong, but isn't fanfiction about writing stuff in your own style but with characters from the original series? But thanks for your criticism Carrie, it's actually the first constructive critisicsm I've received, and of course, I thank you for taking your time to read and review.

And to the rest of my readers- enjoy~ :D

Chapter 9

ANGEL

Harou was dead. That's what I've been telling myself for the last couple hours, but I just couldn't seem to process the fact that he's... Gone. The two newcomers were at the far side of the cell, obviously not knowing how to react, but honestly, I think I've had enough. I'm as close to finding the flock as when I was first captured at that sewer-explosion incident. Now, the one friend who I could trust... was dead. Betraying Max for leadership, now I virtually led a normal boy to his death. How could I live on? I pulled my legs closer to me, holding my head in my shaking hands.

Get over it Angel. You know what Max would say. He's gone, and he wanted you to be safe- don't let his actions go to waste. A part of me said softly, but with determination, and I knew it was right; I should forget about Harou. I needed to find the flock. That was my to priority.

... But I still couldn't move. The cold gray walls seemed to cave in towards me, pressing me from all sides so that I couldn't breathe. I shook my head. Stay strong, got to stay strong Angel. I told myself.

That's how I ended up muttering, "he's dead. He's dead. He's dead." over and over again. Because it was the truth. No matter how I despised myself, how much I hated the whitecoats, how much I hated the WORLD- I couldn't do anything about it. But at the same time, he would be disappointed to see me giving up on my life like this. For the brief time I've met him, he and Max shared a trait. They were both fighting spirits, they would never give up like me. I needed to move on.

"he's dead." I half sobbed, tears quietly rolling down my cheeks. "he's dead and he's not going to come back. He's-" the cell door abruptly opened, and something was thrown in. It was a body of a boy, dressed in a clean white t shirt with matching pants that of a patient in a hospital.

It was Harou.

"not dead!" I choked on my own words, quickly running to his side. Yup. It was him, no doubt about it. I quickly placed m hand on his chest. He was alive, thank god. But he was pale as a ghost, and his hands and feet were a nasty shade of purple, as if he had been tied to a post for too long. But what grabbed my attention was the top of his head.

In the midst of the black frenzy of hairs of his, were two large, triangular and... Well, cat-like EARS. they were covered with actual FUR which were a dark shade of brown, almost the exact color as his hair. They actually looked pretty cute on him, like as if he was wearing one of those cat ear headbands for Halloween or something, I wanted to touch them to see how they felt like...

They were incredibly soft and.. Fluffy. "what on earth are you doing?" Omega's incredulous voice sprang out of the silence. "eek!" his sudden voice surprised me so that I accidentally squeezed on Harou's new ears a little too tightly. "ow!" We all turned around to see Harou complaining. "that freaking hurts!" he croaked, his eyes slowly flickering open. "An...gel?" "Harou!" "w-what are you doing?" he managed in a hoarse voice. "er..." "checking to see if you're alive probably." Omega said sarcastically. "and who're you guys?" he tried to sit up, but his body must still be hurt after the transformation, cuz he yelped in pain and immediately stopped trying. Sweat already rolling down his face from that simple effort. "stay still! You need to relax-" he laughed. It came out more of a soft chuckle though. For some reason, his voice had gone completely hoarse and cracked. "yeah I figured."

As I quietly examined his face, taking in every feature of the person who I had thought was dead a few minutes ago, I realized the ears weren't the only things that had changed.

"so... I guess I have wings now huh?" he grinned. "can't wait to try them out" I rolled my eyes. "seriously Harou? You're not troubled that now you're a... Mutant?" he shrugged. "not really." I sighed gratefully. Thanking him quietly for being so carefree about it. "I mean, I can freaking FLY anywhere I want to go now." I cracked a small smile of my own at his child like excitement. And I'm supposed to be a seven year old.

But then something clicked. "wait... Er, Harou?" Harou raised a brow, apparently speaking really must take a lot out of him right now. "you're sure you're 2 percent avian?" judging from his puzzled eyes, I guess not. "y-you haven't looked in a mirror have you?" "no... Why?" I bit my lip. Oh god. He thought he was an avian hybrid just like me! But in reality, he was this... Kitty boy! How am I supposed to explain to him?

"Um..." "here, I have a mirror." Claire handed me one from her pocket. Huh? That was weird. I didn't know white coats had been so kind to as let their experiments keep mirrors. "Harou, I'm so sorry." I repeated for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

HAROU

I immediately knew something was wrong when she held the mirror over my face. "what. The. FUDGE happened?" I nearly screamed. "I'm so sorry." I was speechless. "that's... Me?" Angel nodded sadly. "get over it, it's not like you got tentacles stretching out of your noes." The boy with the pal blond hair rolled his eyes." "Omega! Shut up will you?" the girl smacked his head, pretty hard. "ow! Why? What did I do now?" "you're such a-" I tuned them out. Mindless quibbling can wait. Studying my new messed up face was more important.

Okay, so I've got... Brown, furry Cat ears on the top of my head. My normal human ears were no where to be seen. That alone was enough to make me flipping crazy, but what was worse, was that I didn't look like myself anymore. My eyes, nose, lips, everything seemed so much more... Feminine like.

I was still a boy, but I could easily pass for... Well, a girl (if you minus the boobs) You know how in those Japanese anime, there are those 'pretty-boy' characters? Yeah. I looked pretty close to that. "goddammit." I wanted to bang my head on the wall. "I'm sorry about the ears Harou-" "It's not the ears Angel. My whole face just got estrogen-ified." I groaned. She blinked, as if confused. "estrogen... Ified?" she suddenly bursted out laughing. "Not funny." I muttered, my face instantly heating up. "that's why you were angry? Cuz you look pretty?" "boys and pretty doesn't mix." I said stubbornly. "well, I think your cuter this way anyway." she smirked. I wanted to kill myself. "gee thanks." my voice dripping with sarcasm. "but seriously, you're not worried about your um... Ears?" I sighed. "it's sucks, but I can probably hide them with a hat." my voice cracked again at the last word, and after a round of violent coughs, I felt a rush of fatigue hit me out of nowhere. Angel noticed. "sleep, you need to rest Harou. I'll watch over so they don't take you again." "thanks." my words were already slurred as I slumped back in to sleep.

I woke with a surprised yelp when I felt something squeeze my ears. "sorry! I just wanted to see how it felt like!" it was that girl from yesterday. "wow that actually hurts... A lot." I muttered, rubbing my... Ears. "sorry." she apologized. Angel was sprawled right next to me, snoring. So much for watching over me. "Try not to wake her up, she just fell asleep right now." "yeah..." "so you're okay now? You slept for like, two whole days straight!" my eyes widened. "for real?" "yeah, I know because Omega there told me what day it is today when he got taken for... Stuff." Omega was asleep, his back slumped against the back wall, arms folded.

I slowly tried to get up. My body was still aching all over as if I got beaten with a sledge hammer, but it was noticeably much easier than before. "whoa whoa! Angel's going to kill me if you overwork yourself!" "don't worry, I'm fine now." I was standing now, in my new white shirt and shorts, I felt even more like a lab rat. Something soft brushed against my legs.

I looked down, and nearly fainted. "wow. Nice tail." she said pointing at the thing sprouting from my behind. It was the same color as my ears, but the fact that I had a-a tail, it was just so disturbing. I found out I could move it, like a fifth limb, and it felt SO weird. After a moment of both of us staring at my tail, she suddenly started. "oh! Right, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Claire, and that's Omega. We were in this cell before you two came in. Nice to meet you." "Harou. So you've been here for how long?" "oh I don't know, about two or three years?" YEARS? She laughed at my shocked face. "Omega was kept inside the School for his entire life. He was literally born and raised here." wow, I felt sorry for that guy.

"he was a real douche when I first met him. Ranting about how 'perfect' he was and ordering me around, but he gradually came to acting normal... Well, sort of at least." she looked at the sleeping blonde affectionately. Ho, look who's giving the doe eyes! Lol. I chuckled. "what?" she pouted, crossing her arms in front of her. "nothing." I said quickly. "haven't you guys considered escaping?" she raised a brow. "duh? Of course we have! But it's impossible, we tried countless times, but the Rabies are just way too fast, maybe if we fight them when we're not exhausted by examinations and stuff, but otherwise we can't even get out of the cell." "Rabies?" "they're these improved version of Erasers, and they're wicked strong too, you don't want to fight a Rabie one on one." she warned. "... right." I didn't need to be told twice. The last Eraser that pulverized me must've been a Rabie, I realized. No wonder his punches hurt so bad.

But there was something else I realized; my senses were really hyped up right now. Like, I could hear every intake of breath from all three other mutants inside the cell, my eyes were able to take in every single detail although it wad pretty dark inside and the striking scent of coughurinecough was enough to water my eyes a little bit- but none of the others seemed to be bothered by it. "and don't try to touch the bars- there's electric currents flowing in them." she warned. "that sucks." she nodded. "last time Omega tried he literally flew to the wall." I winced. Ouch. She laughed. "yeah, that's back when he was still trying to boss me around."

"wait, if you're inside this cell, I guess you're like... Me?" she nodded. "sort of, I AM a mutant if thats what you're asking. But I'm not half kitten." wow a kitten? Gee. I scowled. "hey it's okay, you look pretty cute with those ears." she laughed at my 'seriously?' face. "So what are you then? Half..." I trailed off, cuz she didn't have anything abnormal sticking out from her body. "I'm a hundred percent human." she smirked. "but I was, I guess, 'modified' to do this." she held out her hand as if to say 'stop right there!' and then-

"whoa!" a bright, transparent, slightly violet wall of light appeared out of nowhere. "I can hold these up to thirty two minutes max. She withdrew her powers. "that's... Pretty cool." I said. She grinned. "as far as I know, they can't be penetrated, the hardest thing I contained was a missile." my jaw dropped. "then why not just use that to keep away the Erasers and Rabies?" "I can't move the force filed itself, and they just wait till I'm exhausted, they just beat me up for punishment. It's really no use." she sighed. "oh..." "believe me, I tried and I still have the marks for it." she winced, rubbing her back unconsciously.

"Omega's modified to be all around... Well, perfect." she whispered the last word. "don't tell Omega though, it'll get to his head." I raised a brow. "he doesn't have any extraordinary powers, but he's super strong and super fast, plus his brain's like a calculator. Super sight, hearing etc etc." she waved her hand dissmissively. "wow." I gaped at the sleeping guy. "so why doesn't he just escape if he's so perfect?" "well.." she fiddled with her finger. "he probably can if he wanted to, but when we last tried, I couldn't keep up with him, and we got caught. His punishment was... Pretty scary, but he says won't escape without me. He says that he doesn't really care whether he stays here or not." she blushed. "that's nice of him." she nodded. "yeah.."

Angel stretched her arms, yawning loudly. "Claire is Harou okay-" she noticed me standing, and sprang up to her feet. "Harou! Are you okay now? You should still sit down-" "I'm fine Angel. I needed to stretch myself." her eyes bulged. I noticed what she was looking at. "I know, I have a freaking tail. Just my luck huh? Someone gets to fly around with their wings and I get stuck with a useless tail." Angel smiled sheepishly. "you look pretty cute though." I rolled my eyes. "thanks for watching over him Claire." she thanked her. "plus he's not a complete douchebag like Omega was." Angel laughed.

"Wow I'm pretty much starving though." Angel said after a while, rubbing her tummy. "same." I agreed, remembering that I didn't have anything to eat for about three days at least. "breakfast should be here in a while." Claire said, grimacing. "why the face though?" I asked. "trust me, the only food worth eating in this place is the stuff you get for rewards." just then, a gruff looking guy with a sneering face stomped by with a worn out cart full of trays.

He didn't say anything but slid four trays across the bar, and I have to say. I could probably cook something better than this. "are we seriously supposed to eat this?" I gaped as I looked at the grayish brown looking soup. Claire shrugged. "if you think you can survive a day without it, don't. But I'd eat up rather than die." Angel silently picked up her spoon and began to eat, as if she was used to this stuff. So did Claire. It could be that bad then, right? "ugh." I pulled a face as I took a first sip. It tasted like... rubbery water (does that even make sense?). FML.