Chapter 25: Vanishing Act

Ari POV

"Sir!" The pilot said urgently.

"What is it?!" I barked back, not wanting to take my eyes off the fight below. I was in a helicopter, circling the flock as they thought the robots.

"To the north, sir. The renegades." He replied nervously. I turned to look out the cockpit window, and saw them a group of about 40 or so Flying Erasers, all headed towards the ensuing fight beneath us. I snarled when I saw them.

I picked up the remote radio in my pocket, and shouted into it. "New orders. Proceed North by North-west and intercept the Eraser Fugitives. Engage in combat. Now." I watched below as the robots all withdrew from the flock, and headed towards the Erasers. I morphed myself, and jumped out of the helicopter and joined them eager to get my own back on some of my old comrades.

I joined the Flyboys and realised that they had all withdrawn from the flock. "Groups H through T, return to the flock and engage combat!" I didn't watch them go back, knowing they'd follow my orders.

I kept my eyes on the Erasers, some of them I recognised from my old team, some I didn't. It had always been hard to tell hem apart when they were morphed. They saw me too, and I saw them all push themselves forwards, eager to get a piece of me. Then one of them at the front of their pack shouted orders at them, and they calmed down. Their leader. I didn't recognise him, but he kept his eyes firmly fixed on me.

Seconds later, we clashed in the air, the robots barrelling through their predecessors, using their superior weight to barge them out of the way. I clashed into the leader, and instantly, our claws were thrashing. I used everything I had at my disposal. Slashing my claws, throwing my fists, biting him, but he remained strong, and battled on, doing the same to me.

I would take out others in the battle around me, as they thought the robots, whenever there was a break in my fight. At one point, I grabbed one from behind, and slashed my claw across his throat. I watched his body fall to the sea below, quickly dispelling the memory of the last time I slashed someone's throat like that.

The next thing I knew, two Erasers grabbed me from behind, holding my arms, and then another two grabbed my legs, holding me in place in the air. The leader flew in front of me, and grinned as I struggled to get free.

"You don't know who I am do you?" he asked me, letting the battle around him continue. Rather than responding to him, I decided to spit in his face. He slowly wiped it away and said "I didn't expect you too." All of a sudden he lashed out at me, pummelling my face, cutting my arm deeply with his claws. After about 30 seconds of this, he stopped, panting heavily. I didn't utter a cry of pain, or call for help. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

"You always used to complain that your father paid more attention to Max than you, that he loved her more than you, how you envied her for having so much of your fathers' attention." He said, confusing me as to where he was going. "But you never saw how lucky you were. You got to spend time with him, you got to talk to him, have the chance to earn his love! I never even got that!"

With that he slashed his claws across my face, leaving deep scratches across my cheeks.

"What do you mean you never got that?" I gasped. "Who are you?"

"Oh, don't you remember me, Baby Brother?" he laughed. I stared at him, my mouth agape. He leaned in close to me and said, "Yeah, you heard me. Ever since you were born, my life has been hell. When you were born, he saw it as a second chance; I was seen as a failed experiment. I was thrown away like a piece of trash, sent off to find a life for myself. They just never found what they were looking for in me. And now, I'm going to do what you never could. I'm going to eliminate Max, and the flock. But first, I'm going to eliminate you..."

When he said that, he moved back, and had the Erasers turn me around. "What are you doing? What are you going to do to me?"

I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder blades, like a knife was slowly being pushed into my back. I turned my head to see the leader, my brother, slowly pushing one of his claws into my back, the look on his face suggesting he was savouring every moment off it. The pain quickly escalated. This would be fatal. I had to act. I mustered all the strength I had, and threw out my arms and legs, throwing The Erasers off me. For a split second I was free, and I quickly flapped my wings, making the claw, cut along my back. I screamed out in pain, and shot forward, and flew as fast as I could.

I didn't look back, but quickly the sound of the battle got quieter, and I headed back towards he helicopters. My vision was dulling however, and I couldn't make out which one was mine. The pain in my back was intense, not helped by the flapping of my wings. It was getting harder to flap them too, they were stiffening up. I felt myself slipping.

I could make out the black shape of a helicopter, and I headed for it. But as I was 50 feet away, my wings seized up, and I began to fall. I fell about a hundred feet, willing my wings to flap, but I just couldn't muster the energy. I closed my eyes, accepting the inevitable.

Suddenly, I crashed into something, and I felt y wing clip someone n the air, before I crashed into someone else.

"Emily!" I heard someone shout, at the same time as someone else shouted "Gazzy!"

I snapped open my eyes, and saw the blades of a helicopter spinning about 50 feet below me, as well as an unconscious figure falling in front of me. Without thinking, I mustered the little energy I had left, and grabbed the falling person from in front of me, and stiffened my wings as wide as they would go.

I felt the air catch beneath them, and I arched upwards, and glided towards a helicopter 60 feet ahead. I glided through the open door, and landed in a heap, before finally falling unconscious.

Iggy POV

I heard something whoosh beside me, and Max making an "Oomph!" noise as if she had the breath knocked out of her.

"Gazzy!" I heard Nudge shout from above me, at almost the exact time as Will screamed "Emily!" from below. No-one said anything, but I heard Will fly off hurriedly down towards the sounds of what I knew were helicopter blades below. The beating wings of Gazzy and Emily were gone too.

"What's happening?!" I shouted as I kicked a Flyboy out of the air. No-one replied. "Hello?" I called out. I could hear them panting, Fang and Nudge fighting above me.

Frustrated, I shouted out "Will someone please tell me what is-" but I took a blow to the temple, momentarily forgetting about the fight. I got knocked back away from the fighting, out into the open air. Dazed, I shook my head and started back towards the Flyboys, when I saw something.

I stared at it, frowning, and mouth agape. Now just to remind you, I'm blind. I can't see anything. So when someone who is blind see's something, it's a pretty big deal.

It looked like a bubble, a colour of which I had never seen before, even when I could see, in my life. Not white, not clear, not anything really. But inside the bubble, was a figure. A person. And they had wings.

Forgetting the fight, forgetting the flyboys, and Will and Gazzy, I flew straight for it, focusing on it, not daring to blink. I faintly heard someone call my name behind me, but I ignored them.

I had imagined things, and seen them in my mind, sort of like dreaming when awake; picturing my surroundings and such, but nothing had ever been this vivid, this real looking. As I flew towards the bubble, and the figure, they got bigger, as if I was getting closer to them. I could make them out now, a boy, in his mid to late teens, with scruffy brown hair, wearing a blue top, brown trouser, and some black trainers, and large, golden brown wings.

I was close to him now, and he glanced at me, and stopped. He was watching me, warily and tense. I stopped, about 5 feet from the edge of the bubble, which was about 10 feet wide, the boy in the center of it.

I stared at him, and then held up my hands to my face, but couldn't see them, just the boy in the bubble. The boy stared at me, and then looked around, behind him, confused. "Are you real?" I called out to him.

He looked around again, and then stared at me, and he muttered the word "What?" under his breath.

So I repeated "Are you real?"

"What?" he said loudly this time.

"Are you real?" I called out again, stressing each word.

"Can you see me?!" The boy gasped in an English accent I recognised.

I gave a small laugh of joy, as I replied "Yes."

"And you can hear me?" he gasped again.

"Yes." I said, confused as to why he asked me.

"But... But that's impossible. No-one is supposed be able to see me! How are you doing that?" He asked threateningly.

"I don't know." I said, half to myself, trying to figure out where I knew his voice from. "Who are you?"

He looked at me, flabbergasted, before replying "My name is Alex. Seriously, how are you doing that?"

"I don't know." I laughed. "Um, my name is-" I began but he cut me off.

"I know who you are. You're Iggy. I thought you were supposed to be blind?" He said.

"I am blind. How do you know my name?" I asked. I was so sure I had heard that voice before.

"I just do okay; I really don't have time for this. I need to do something so-"

But this time I was the one who cut him off. "Wait! I know who you are!" I stared at his face, his hair, his wings. They were exactly the same as he had described them. "You're Will."

He chuckled and grinned knowingly, and then said "No, I'm not Will, I just look like him. And if you don't mind, I need to go and make sure he's alright." He began to fly off, but I shouted after him.

"No! Wait! How can I see you?"

He stopped and turned around. "I don't know." He said, irritated. "No-one is supposed to be able to see me."

"What do you mean?" I asked, frowning.

"I'm invisible. No-one can see me, because I'm invisible okay? That's my power. Just like Will's strength, and Max's speed, and Angel's telepathy. I can turn invisible. I'm invisible now, in fact, or at least I thought I was." He said, angry now. "So now, I'm going okay? Goodbye." He turned his back to me and began to fly away, but I chased him. It wasn't hard to follow the only thing I could see.

He looked back, saw me, and groaned, stopping suddenly and turning around. I didn't have time to stop, and I collided with him, going inside the bubble. As soon as I did, I gasped, looking around. I could see. I could see the sky, and the ocean, the cliffs leading west along the English coast, the French coast to the south, and the sun in the sky. For a split second, I could see, and it was beautiful. Then Alex pushed me, shouting "Leave me alone!", and I fell out of the bubble, back into the darkness.

"If you can see me when I'm invisible, maybe you won't when I'm not!" He shouted at me angrily. All of a sudden he disappeared, replaced with the darkness that I had seen for most of my life. I swivelled around in the air, hoping to see him, hoping he was still there.

"Where did you go?" I called into the black. "Where are you?"

"Good," I heard him say to my left. I looked in the direction of his voice, but saw nothing. "Goodbye Iggy." Then I heard the swooping of his wings, and they disappeared quickly, into the sounds of the helicopters in the distance.

"No." I said quietly, tears in my eyes.

"No come back!" I shouted after him. "Please! Come back!"

There was no reply, and I swivelled around, hoping beyond all reason that he would return, just so I could see something again, so I could go back in his bubble and see.

"COME BACK!"

Gazzy POV

I woke up, dazed and seeing stars. What had happened? The last thing I remember was kicking a Flyboy in the stomach. Then I was here. A lucky Flyboy must have gotten around behind me, and taken me out. I looked around, and recognised I was on the inside of a Helicopter. There were 3 people inside, none of them looking at me, all looking out the door in the side, pointing rifles of some kind at something below. I looked to the left, and could see the pilot in the cockpit.

I was slumped uncomfortably against the side of the cabin, so I tried to get up, but soon realised I couldn't. I looked down at my arms, and saw they were locked in place to the wall in metal braces, just above the elbow, in a way that I could not get to the braces to free myself. The same went for my legs, with the brace just below the knees, attached to the floor.

I looked to my right, and in the corner in the shadow, I could see the figure of an Eraser, breathing slowly, unconscious. I couldn't see their face. I was about to shout out to the men, to find out what was going on, when the whole helicopter shook.

One of them men fell out of the helicopter, and the others fell on their backs. An alarm started to sound in the cockpit, and I could see the pilot frantically pushing buttons and switches on the control board.

"What's happening?!" One of the soldiers shouted, at the pilot, as he got up.

"I don't know, the rudders have just stopped!" he called back. I looked out the window, and could see that we were plummeting, and fast. Uhoh. "I can't start her back up, were gonna have to jump!" The pilot shouted out to the soldiers. I watched in horror as the two soldiers grabbed a couple of parachutes from hooks on the wall and jumped out of the helicopter.

"Mayday, mayday!" The pilot was shouting into a radio. "42 is going down, I repeat, I have lost control and we are going down!" He then pulled off his helmet, and went to grab a parachute.

"Wait, you can't just leave me here!" I shouted at him, as he strapped on his parachute. "Get these things off me!" I said, gesturing to the braces on my arms and legs.

The Pilot looked at me, and then out the Helicopter, the world zipping away outside. "Sorry kid." He said, and my face dropped. "At least you got company." He said, gesturing to the Eraser in the corner, before jumping out as well.

Oh god. Was this it? Is this really happening? I started tugging my arms desperately, trying to get free. All of a sudden, a strange grey orb came through the door and rolled over to in between my legs. The same kind which had blown the cliff into the sea. It had flashing lights on it, same as the other, and it they were slowly going out. Oh great, how could my day get any worse. Maybe if I was lucky, it would blow up 1st before I crashed into the sea, and drowned to death.

Then I saw something at the window. It was Will. He climbed in, struggling to do so, against the force of the dropping helicopter. There was something different about him, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

"Will thank god! Get me out of these!" I shouted to him thankfully.

He walked over to me and began tugging at the braces on my arms. There was something different about his face especially. His hair was shorter, and he had less scars. His clothes had changed too. Rather than questioning these things I decided to leave it to when my life wasn't in mortal danger.

"Will come on! Use your strength!" I pleaded with him; not knowing how long we had left till either crashed or blew up.

"I can't do that!" he shouted, his face strained from pulling on the braces. The helicopter lurched, and Will fell backwards. He turned around on his back and looked out the door.

"I'm sorry Gazzy!" he said, looking at me. "There's no time left! We're going to crash!"

I looked at him, and then to the orb, the lights had nearly gone out now.

"Go. Quick. There's no use us both dying." I said, tears in my eyes.

"I... I'm sorry." He said quietly, and then got up, and jumped out the door.

This was it. This was the end. I could see the ocean now, out the window. Any second now, I was going to die. The orb had two lights left, and had rolled off onto the other side of the helicopter.

Tears flowed freely down my cheeks now. I thought of the flock, and everything that had happened, how I had never gotten to say good bye.

CRASH! The helicopter lurched to a stop as it hit the water, and I bashed my head against the wall. The Eraser was thrown across the cabin. Water began gushing in, and I took a deep breath as water enveloped me. I could see the orb, through the water, one lone light flashing on it. This couldn't be happening. This was impossible. Someone or something had to save me.

But it didn't.

And then the light went out.

I closed my eyes, and my last thought was, strangely, of Will, and why he was so different, before I felt the force of the explosion shake my body violently.

And then, nothing. I was gone.