Chpt 7. I Learn About the School of Doom

ANNABETH

When I woke up, I had no idea where I was. I sat up and rubbed my head. I looked around and realized What in the Underworld, I'm in a dog crate! Tn fact there were several dog crates in what felt like a… plane maybe?

Then I realized that I wasn't alone. In that dog crate next to me, a small girl was beginning to stir. She had soft blond curls, and looked to be about six. When she opened her eyes they were a startling blue. Wait a minute. I had seen this girl before. Was she?

"Yes, I am one of the those kids you and the other boy helped out" the little girl said softly, "My name's Angel, what's yours?"

"I'm Annabeth," I replied absentmindedly. My mind was racing. The way this little girl had answered her question without her asking it, it was almost like she could…

"Read your mind?" Angel asked "That's because I can. Your different though, I mean usually I can read all of what someone's thinking, any time I want to, but I can only read yours when you're thinking about something related to me. It might be better if we don't talk out loud for a while."

I decided to trust her. After all I didn't really have any other allies here.

'Alright,' I thought, 'could you tell me who you and your friends are, where I am, and what those wolf-things were?'

'Sure,' I heard Angel's voice in my mind. This was so weird. 'but after I do, you have to tell me about you.'

'Deal' I thought.

'Alright. My friends going from oldest to youngest: Max, she's the leader, she can fly (I'll explain that after) supersonically and breathe underwater, Fang, he's second in command, he can do the same as Max (but she's still the better leader), plus turn invisible when he holds still. Iggy, he's blind, but he can feel colors and see white, and is really good at blowing stuff up, Nudge, who is really good with mechanics and is mega super fashion oriented, she can draw metal to her, feel leftover emotions, and hack into almost anything (she talks a lot too) Gazzy, he and I are the only actual siblings, he can mimic, has super farts (which are totally gross by the way), and, along with Iggy, blow up almost anything.

'And then there's me. I can read and control (but not your's) minds, animals included, breathe underwater, and I can change what I look like. Then there's the thing that all of us can do.'

That's when Angel spred her snowy white wings. I drew in my breath. 'We all have them,' Angel mind spoke, 'Max's are really pretty, brown and white speckled, Fang's are pure black, Iggy's are light brown, Nudges are tawny, and Gazzy's are kinda cream looking, and mine are, obviously, white.'

My mind was spinning, trying to make sense of it all. 'How,?' I asked/thought.

'Well," Angel answered, 'Some crazy scientists injected bird DNA into our embryos, so we're 98% human, 2% bird. They did all these tests on us at this School in Death Valley, which is where they're taking us now. It's a total hell-hole. Those wolf-things, we call 'em Erasers, they're 4% wolf. As far as the flock knows, we and the Erasers (plus Max's clone which is just as weird as it sounds), are the only successful surviving hybrids except my talking dog Total. He's mostly Scottie, but we're not sure what else. He's with his Malamute girlfriend at the moment."

My brain was having slight trouble processing all of this. 'They experiment on children?!' I was starting to get nauseous.

'Ya,' Angel said sadly, 'Most of them die. We've seen it happen. Those experiments blinded Iggy. They were trying to improve his night-vision, but the surgery went wrong.

Just then I thought of that huge Eraser, Ari. 'What's with him,' I asked Angel.

'Ari? Well, he was seven when they Eraser-fied him. Max, ah accidentally snapped his neck when he was attacking us. He came back from the dead. Then after being one of the bad guys for a while, he helped escape some whitecoats. Then Max found out that he was her half brother, like right before he died again, this time in her arms. And now he's back again, and evil.'

There was a pause while I digested that bit of information. Then 'I've told you my story. Now it's your turn to tell me yours.'

So I told her everything, a 'in a rather large nutshell' account of my adventures from when I ran away from home at the age of seven, to the fight with the wolf-men I now knew as Erasers.

When I finished, Angel's eyes were wide, and she had a thoughtful look on her face. Then she grinned.

'you know what?' she asked, still smiling.

'What?'

'We have a real chance of getting out of here!'

'Huh?'

'C'mon, Annabeth. I have powerful friends who won't stop until they find me, and so do you. All they have to do is work together,'

'And all we have to do is wait." I finished

'Exactly!'

One little problem. I am an ADHD demigod. I hate waiting.