Author's Note: Here it is! The seventh chapter! I hope this is long enough for you! Read and review, please!

Disclaimer: I only own Frii, Tiffany, Ashley, the Twins, Dark Wing, and Eagle Eye. Everything else is somebody else's property. Especially Shakespeare's Hamlet. *Shudders* That name is one of the biggest reasons I hate Literary Analysis class...

"FRII?!?" Oh, no! Oh, no! No nonono! She SAW! In the name of all things edible, SHE SAW!

I scramble back a few more feet, but when she starts walking even closer to me, my brain finally blows up, and animalistic instincts take over. I turn onto my stomach and fling myself up into a running take off.

"Frii, WAIT!" Not on your life! Not on my life! I finally get enough air under my wings, and shove them down to get airborne. Up, down, up, down, breathe, up, down…

I jerk up, gasping like a fish out of water. I do a quick 360. Tarp over my head, backpack-pillow nearly crushed on the ground, sweat soaking through my T-shirt, blonde hair plastered to my forehead. What I can see of the sky is just starting to turn dawn-grey. I release my white-knuckle grip on my dirty blanket.

I take a couple deep breaths, and rest my head in my hands. Stupid nightmares. I don't get enough sleep as it is. Bad enough I have nocturnal genes, but of course, I also have to get zero rest when I do manage to sleep. The universe officially hates me. I sigh. At least this one wasn't about getting experimented on or attacked by an army of Erasers with grenade launchers or machine guns. Being found out and having to disappear I can handle. It wouldn't be the first time. But still, not a fun thought.

I check my watch. Almost four o'clock A.M. I generally get up around six-thirty, so that I could shower at a trailer park and get to school at quarter to eight. I have time to snooze.

"Owl! OWL! Where are you?!" Shadows race around! Something heavy is pushing on my stomach! I can't breathe! Can't see! Where is Eagle Eye? I hurt!

"Down here!" I try to move the weight! "Help!" Everything is dark! My throat burns! Too loud! Too much screaming! I smell blood! Mine?

Something is growling! Everything hurts! I can't see! "E!" Can't breathe!

"Owl!" I smell the burning stuff! Everything hurts! I can't see! Can't breathe!

No! I can breathe! The thing is gone! Ow! Breathing hurts! I can't see! "E!" Something is screaming! Everything hurts!

Someone is coughing! Who? Everything hurts! I can't see!

Something is grabbing me! Let go of me! "Owl! Stay still!" I can't see!

"E!" I can't see! Let go! I hurt! Someone is screaming! Too loud!

"Owl! I'm here! Let me carry you!" Eagle Eye! I can't see! Everything hurts! "Owl! Stay still! I'm trying to help!"

Everything hurts! I can't see!

"Aaah!" Ow! My head hits a branch as I throw myself away from my attacker. Wait? Branch? I take in air hard and fast, the terror slowly draining away. Right, branch; tarp; tent; forest. Exhale; inhale. O-kay. I'm safe. NOT at the lab. Exhale. Not trapped under a piece of cement. Inhale. Just a nightmare. Again. Exhale, slowly. Stupid scientists. Inhale again. Exhale.

I was about eight then. Caught once again by some stealthy Erasers. Two months of hurting and experimentation went by. I kept waiting for Eagle Eye and Dark Wing to come save me, but they just never showed up. I lost hope. Then all of a sudden, the next thing I knew, everything was chaos and pain. Smoke everywhere. Something on top of me, crushing me. Screams of agony mixed with shouts of anger. The smell of blood mixed with the smell of fire. Every part of my body hurt. A week later I woke up in somebody's attic, Eagle Eye looking at me in worry and guilt. She said that some escaped experiment had blown up the building, causing a part of the wall to land on me. She said I had been wrapped in the sharp remains of my mangled and broken cage, and I was lucky to be alive. I can't remember anything but the pain and panic.

My watch beeps, and I spare it a glance. Exactly six-thirty. I snort. Not my favorite kind of alarm to wake up to. Oh, well. Off to the trailer park, and school from there.

"…owl?" …huh? "Ms. Dowel." uhn… "Ms. Dowel, would you care to recount the plotline of Shakespeare's Hamlet for the class?" …mm? "I assume you've already read and memorized everything this course has gone over since you have the time to nap." Oops! My eyes quickly open the rest of the way. Stupid owl genes.

I sit up in my chair and try to cover my yawn. "Sorry, Ms. Jackson."

"Please wait until summer vacation before you start destroying your sleep schedule. I'm sure you can last another week and a half."

"Sorry." My Literary Analysis teacher stares at me with pursed lips a moment longer, then continues on with the semester review. Man, I can't wait until summer. I could go to bed at four in the morning, get up at one in the afternoon, and not have to worry about getting in trouble for dozing off… Yaaawwwnnnn… But for now, I need to focus on staying awake until school lets out. Not gonna be easy, but I'll swing it.

Off go the classroom lights, though I can still see perfectly fine. I have to admit, certain aspects of owl genetics do have their pluses. Like having eyes meant for nocturnal creatures. I still hate the instinct to sleep in the daytime, but being able to see in just about any level of darkness is a good thing. It makes it easier to spot stalkers and stuff at night.

"Alright, everybody. Your projects are due today. Who would like to show the class your movie first?"

Several hands shoot up, including the Bern twins'. I have this gut feeling that someone is staring at me, but I don't want to turn back to see who it is. Turning around after a teacher asks about due assignments is basically like holding up a sign that says "I don't have anything to turn in; please call on somebody else!" Of course, that would basically guarantee that the teacher would call on me, and I really don't need that. So I'll just ignore the eyes burning into the back of my skull for now. I mean, it's not like I should have any reason to fear any of my class mates. My wings are squeezed tightly to my back, and the only way someone could see them would be with X-ray vision. And I'm almost positive I'm the only non-human being in here. …Right?

"Ashley King." Mrs. Jonas nods towards my grinning classmate and heads for her desk chair. She doesn't need to explain the process of turning in a movie to anyone; we've all done it numerous times over the semester.

Ashley strides up to the "turn in" laptop next to my desk, plugs her flash drive in, and clicks the file. The projector in the back of the room whirs to life, and everybody gets quiet.

Wow. Looking at some of these videos, you wouldn't easily guess the topic was "heroism". In the past half-hour, Superman has died twice, Ali Babba had a three-minute food fight with the forty thieves, some guy named "Ultra-Dude" did the Hamster Dance on a robber's face, and a demon did a thumb-war with an angel. Come on, people! Ashley's musical ninja-teenagers video was better than that! Jeez!

"Tiffany Annika."

I clap with everyone else. Tiff always does cool videos, without going over the top like the Twins. She starts with weird ideas during planning but the finished products are better than expected. This will be interesting, at the least.

-- The color red fills the screen, but the camera quickly zooms out to show Spiderman, pointing a hand outward in the well-known web-slinging position. Another character appears next to him: a little green boy with fangs and furry bat ears. A word flashes onto the space below the two, and a deep, echoing voice announces,

"Animal!"

A black line strikes diagonally across the screen, then widens and splits apart, revealing a new picture: a young man, toned muscles flexing, grimaces and turns to face the viewer. A large, black scar covers the entire left side of his face. A fat old man, expression calm and calculating, steps up next to the teenager. The two punch simultaneously toward the ground, flames erupting from their fists. The ashes make up a word, again announced by that deep voice:

"Fire!"

The display flashes white quickly, and when the light fades, another image: a huge, chunky orange man stomps forward, shoving his rocky shoulder out in a threatening way. A boy in a blue jacket suddenly falls into view, punching the ground as he lands. The picture vibrates, as if the camera's being shaken. The screen breaks like glass, and the cracks form a word:

"Strength!"

The screen blinks, and becomes divided into three parts. In each section, two people. The voice announces,

"Each team will have to complete four dangerous tasks, and earn as many points as possible! The fifth, and final, task shall fall upon the two teams with the highest scores! This task shall be a duel, in which the losers will have to take a swim in hot lava, and the winners shall RULE THE WORLD! Let the tournament BEGIN!"--

Ooh! Fun! I join with rest of my peers cheering the teams on, and "boo" whenever Team Fire loses points. It's like an eight-minute game show, with everybody having favorites, and nobody caring about "inside voices" anymore.

…It's weird, but every time the green Animal kid changes forms, I get that feeling of being stared at again. I look behind me for a second, but everyone is too focused on the movie to even notice my existence. Something is nagging at the back of my mind, but I just can't figure it out. Is it instinct? Or am I just being paranoid about the fact that I'm an animalistic humanoid surrounded by humans? Hmm…

So, watcha think?