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Max, Nick and I had become even better friends now that we both knew about each other's wings, though I was still itching to ask the one question I had on my mind: How did this happen? I finally got my chance to ask while we were on a short afternoon flight, and yes I said flight. We can fly, remember? So I asked them.

"So..." I began. Max shot me a questioning look. "How did this happen to us?"

Nick and Max exchanged a look, then max looked back at me. "Can we talk about this somewhere on the ground?" She asked.

I thought, "We can go to my house, it's right down there," I said pointing. We started to spiral down, "land in the back yard and out of site, my parents still don't know about the... wings." They nodded and landed gracefully in the backyard, I followed them down but ended up tripping and landing flat on my face. Still needed to work on my landings...

We tucked in our wings and walked in the door, "Jack, I'm home!" I hollered. My brother, Jack, walked into the room, saw Max and Nick and gave me a questioning look.

"hey Jack, this is Max and this is Nick," I said.

"Nice to meet you," Jack said extending his hand, "good to see my brother has found some friends."

They shook hands and we headed upstairs, "We'll be upstairs if you need us, Jack," I called down. I closed the door to my room and locked it before he could answer. We sat on the bed and a deafening silence settled over us.

"So... Where to begin?"

--

Several hours and several large bags of chips later I had heard their whole story, all the way up to when they saved the world. I was shocked, no, more than that. I was fucking terrified. All the pain and torture they had gone through as mere children, I couldn't even imagine it. But they had been born with their wings, so how had I gotten mine? My mind flashed back to the nightmare I had had, wait...

"Wait, can you describe the creatures- Erasers, you called them?" I asked.

"Umm... Well they look like models, people you would see in fashion magazines. When they morph they basically look like werewolves, and act like 'em too." Max answered.

My eyes widened.

"Something wrong Philip?" Nick asked.

"Umm... well..." Should I tell them? I don't know, my wings shifted as I thought it over. "The night right after I started school, I had this nightmare... Well I got captured by what looked like Erasers. They took me to this lab place where they injected me with stuff, and when I woke up I had wings..."

I noticed their eyes widened. "Do you know that you were gone for, like, a week when you first came, right?" Max asked.

"What?!" I exclaimed, "How could I have been gone that long without noticing??"

"I guess your nightmare was more real than you thought it was." Nick said.

"But... How?" I asked.

"We don't know, but it looks like the scientists who made us like this aren't quite finished and are still doing experiments. And to top it all off, they can apparently manipulate people's memories." Max said.

There was a short pause.

"This isn't good," Nick said.

"No duh, Fang" Max said. Wait, What? Did she just call him Fang? His eyes shot up.

"Max!" He said, anger creeping into his voice.

"Oh, sorry Fang," Max apologized, "Yea, his name is really Fang not Nick."

"Umm... OK." I stuttered, I was still stumbling over all the information I had just learned. "So you're saying that the White Coats injected me with something and turned me into..."

"A Human-Avian hybrid" Max finished, "And yes, it would seem that that's what they did."

"Do you know what this means?" N-Fang asked. Both Max and I stared at him. "This means that the erasers are probably still after him..."

"Shit!" I yelled, I would have continued but was interrupted when my brother yelled up.

"Hey Philip, were you expecting anyone else?"

I walked to the window and stared out, there were eight guys getting out of a black van parked in front of our yard. They were coming towards the house.

"Don't let 'em in, Jack!" I yelled down the stairs, I turned back to Max and Fang, "You can grab a knife out of my bedside table, there are Erasers coming."

I turned back around and unlocked my door. I rushed into my parents' room and unlocked the gun case, I reached in and grabbed a 12 gauge shotgun along with some ammo. Fang eyed me warily as I loaded the gun. "Don't worry, I know how to use it," I assured him. I went back to my room and grabbed a knife from my bedside table, I could tell this would be a hard fight.

I unlocked the door and we headed downstairs. Jack saw me holding the shotgun and gave me an odd look.

"Guess you know them?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, yes." I answered, "You might wanna get out Jack, these guys are dangerous."

I walked up to the peep-hole in the door as my bro ran upstairs to get out of the way. The Erasers were almost at the door. I pulled back and raised my gun. I pulled the trigger and blew the first one's head off before he could ring the doorbell. Then all hell broke loose. The rest of the Erasers swarmed around the body and into the house. I squeezed off another shot as they rushed in. I turned to see Fang trying to hold off three Erasers with his bare hands, I ran over and knocked one out with the butt of my gun. I heard the report of what sounded like a .22 and turned to see my brother holding a still smoking .22 rifle, I told him to stay out of this! Well, he seemed to be taking this fairly well, especially since he had never seen Erasers before.

Suddenly an Eraser tackled me and my breath rushed out in a huge Woosh! The shotgun fell out of my hands and skidded across the floor. The Eraser had me pinned, I turned around to see that the others weren't doing much better. Soon all of us were being held down by Erasers, Jack was unconscious and an Eraser was standing over him loosely holding his rifle. There were a lot more Erasers than I remembered. I growled as another Eraser strolled in through the front door and picked up the shotgun I had dropped. He walked over to me and aimed it casually at my chest.

"Looks like our new little Birdie will be coming back home after all," the Eraser snickered.

"I'd rather die then go with you monsters!" I snarled.

"I'd be glad to comply," He growled at me, "But, unfortunately, my orders are to bring you in alive,"

He was about to pull something out of his pocket when suddenly a circle of blood blossomed on his forehead and his brains were blown out of his head. I turned to see my mom holding an old .45 caliber pistol my grandfather had used in WWII, it was still smoking. She turned and blasted another shot into the Eraser holding me, and I leaped out of it's grip as it dropped to the floor. Fang and Max both wrestled away from their Erasers and knocked them out cold as I picked up my shotgun. My mom turned to us.

"You mind telling me what the hell is going on, Philip?" she asked.

"Erasers, they-" I began, but was cut off by fang.

"We need to get out of here, they'll send more reinforcements once they realize that these guys haven't returned," he said. I turned to my mom.

"Mom, you and Jack need to get out of here. Go somewhere far away where these guys can't find you, I don't want you getting hurt because of me." I said.

"What do you mean because of you, Philip? What did you do?" she inquired.

"I don't have any time to explain Mom, I just need you to get as far away from here as fast as you can. I really don't want you getting mixed up in all this" I said gesturing around the room. I walked over and hugged her, "I don't know when I'll be able to see you again, goodbye."

"Goodbye Philip." My mom whispered, tears in her eyes, "Be safe."

I untangled myself from her and grabbed a jacket out of my closet, I swung the shotgun over my shoulder and ran upstairs to get supplies. I grabbed money, clothes, anything I thought we might need. I came down with three stuffed backpacks, I handed one to Max and Fang as I swung the other onto my back. I turned and looked at my mother one last time, then I ran out the door and followed Max and Fang off into the sky.