She gaped at me, as did the younger girl.
"May I come in now?" I asked again. I couldn't keep a smile off my face.
She nodded.
I sat awkwardly in the living room. A boy of fourteen wearing all black came in. He was kind of hot, with wavy long-ish black hair. He saw me and narrowed his eyes.
"Who are you?" he demanded. Max glared at him. "Just sit down, Fang."
Fang. That's a weird name. I guess mine's not perfectly normal either so I won't complain. Next was a little boy, around eight. He came in smiling. When he saw me, he froze. Max shot him a reassuring glance and he nodded and sat next to her. Next was a little girl, about six years old. She smiled. "I know already Max." Max smiled at her and the girl went and sat in her lap. Lastly, a boy of fourteen came in. I looked at him with curiosity. He had wavy strawberry blonde hair, not as long as Fang's. He was tall, about six feet. Just by looking at him, I knew he was blind. "Guys? Why is everyone so quiet? "He came into the living room and sat on me.
"Ow!" I said in shock. He straightened immediately.
"I'm sorry, umm….. who did I just sit on?" he asks. "I can't… sense you. Why aren't you familiar to me?"
Max interrupted. "Because we have a… guest Iggy and you just sat on her."
He looked sheepish. "Sorry guest."
I laughed. "It's okay."
Max said "guys" to get everyone's attention. When she had everyone's attention, she said "Okay guys so this girl, she has wings. I don't know her or where she's from, but she's… like us. So let's introduce ourselves."
"So I'm Max," she smiled at me. "I'm fourteen, I'm the "leader" of our little flock, and I can fly with these." And she extended her wings. Thirteen feet long, tan and white with brown speckles.
"I'm Nudge!" piped the eleven year old. "People say I talk too much, and I guess I do but I just get really really excited sometimes, because-"
"Shut it, Nudge!" said the little boy.
She looked sheepish but continued. "yeah, so here are my wings." She extended her wings. They were ten feet long and light brown, almost cream colored.
"I'm Fang," nodded one fourteen year old boy. He extended her wings. They were fifteen feet long, and pure black with purple shadow. Like an angel of death.
The youngest girl smiled at me. "I'm Angel. I can read minds." She extended her eight foot long pure white wings. She looked like an angel.
"Well that's one name I won't forget," I thought to myself.
"Yeah it's pretty easy to remember." Angel's voice in my mind. Well they was quick.
The littlest boy smiled timidly at me. "I'm the Gasman. Call me Gazzy."
I groaned a little. "Please don't show me why."
He laughed. "Oh yeah, and I can perfectly mimic any voice." He extended his wings, light brown and ten feet long.
The fourteen year old that was last smiled. "Yeah so I'm Iggy. I'm blind…. As you can see!" he cracked up at his own joke. The rest of the kids smiled. "Yeah so anyway, I can sense the other members by their fingerprints and smells and stuff like that." Then he extends his fourteen foot long wings. They are blondish, like his hair, and they are beautiful. Without thinking, I press my hand to his wing. The feathers are soft. He smiles at me.
"So, anyway," I clear my throat. "My name is Snow, I'm thirteen years old, and I have wings." I flapped them in confirmation. "I was all made at around the same time as you guys for the same purpose. To make an avian/human hybrid. But when you guys escaped, and came here I guess, they "reprogrammed" me to kill you." At this, they look uncomfortable. Iggy puts his hand on top of mine in comfort. I look at him in surprise. I feel so…. Normal. Well, as normal as seven mutant bird kids can be. I continue my story.
"The day after you guys escaped, they started the tests. All the secret upgrades they programmed in you, they implanted stronger versions of it in me plus capacity for more. And powers you guys don't even have. Their goal, although I didn't know it when I was six, was to make a creature that could overpower you guys. When the K9's failed-"
"What's a K9?" Max interjected.
"Those wolf/human hybrids," I answered. "That's what I call them."
"Oh we call them Erasers," Max explained.
I continued my story with a nod. "So when they failed to locate and capture you, they wanted you dead. So that became my mission. But I didn't want that. So I escaped and I flew here." I finish.
"How did you find us?" asks Iggy.
"I was programmed to find you. It's like an internal GPS." I explain.
"What are your powers?" asks Max.
"Out of what I know, mind-reading, impersonation of voices, super strength and expert fighting skills, and self-healing." I say.
"That's' my power" says Angel and Gazzy at the same time.
"And I'm a pretty kick-ass fighter," adds Max, smiling.
"Self-healing?" questions Fang.
"Yeah, it….. took a while to work," I shudder at the terrible memory. Being tied up, unable to fight back as they slashed at me….I shook my head, trying to rid it of the memory.
"Snow, do you wanna maybe…. Lay down?" asks Max. I was exhausted. I always was….
"You can use my bed!" Offers Nudge. She smiles at me.
I feel like crying. "Yeah, thanks." I follow Nudge back to her room. She smiles at me. "Good night…." She says as I fall asleep immediately.