Equinox

Chapter Thirty

Fang ripped long slices along the back of my shirt. I would need my wings. As he worked, I fleshed out orders.

"Nudge and Iggy, go to the cafeteria and free the hunters," I commanded. Iggy was the best at picking locks and Nudge's psychometric talents might prove useful. "Dylan, Fang, and Angel- seal off all the entrances to the weapon's room. We have to contain the paranormals to one area as precisely as possible. Don't let any of them get out, okay?"

"What about you?" Angel inquired. She asked out of mere consideration for the others. I'm sure she already knew exactly what I planned to do.

I shrugged. "I'm going in."

"By yourself?" Fang demanded. He had finished destroying my t-shirt and now stepped around to face me. The color had returned to his complexion, but his jaw and eye were still unnatural shades of black and blue. I could see the way he favored one leg over the other. He was in no condition for confrontations.

My veins flashed orange in warning. "Have any of you suddenly turned into a supernatural creature lately?"

None of them replied.

"I'm going alone," I concluded, leaving no room for argument. "I'm the only one who has a remote chance of diffusing the tension."

We broke off into our groups: Nudge and Iggy toward the cafeteria; Dylan, Fang, and Angel toward the nearest disguised entrance into the weapon's room, and I toward the secret passageway into the warehouse that Dylan and I had used what seemed like ages ago on the last Winter Solstice.

It took a few careful flaps, but I managed to ascend to the rafters on my own. Once balanced, I scaled the beam and picked my way through the shadows. Another perk of phoenix-dom was enhanced vision. I could see much more clearly the shapes around me, like the familiar 'X' formed by two wooden slabs. I ducked beneath the supports and into the faux-air duct passage. I crawled uncomfortably until all four walls separated and I could stand awkwardly hunched over instead of on my hands and knees.

My mind wandered as I traversed in silent solidarity down the corridor. Marian Janssen teaming up with an apocalypse group. Her plan to extract mine and other paranormals' desirable traits in order to manipulate the human biology and manufacture a bright, shiny new race of uber-humans. The apparent mutiny she was staging at the present moment.

Dylan had identified the paranormal creatures in her ranks as army-sized. What did that really mean in exact numbers? And how had the woman who mercilessly experimented on said creatures manage to control them in such a large setting? They should hate her even more than I. They should have been ripping her to shreds, not obeying her every beck and call.

There was something more in play here, I just didn't know what.

Then there was Jeb and Anne. Maybe they weren't the main villains in action, but still, they were pretty cruddy people. All personal prejudices aside, they were both instrumental players on the School's board. I doubt the flock would see them as anything less than scum. They performed cruel, debilitating experiments on children, all in the name of science. Once I was through here, they would pay for their crimes.

A small voice in the back of my mind reminded me of my mother and Ari, but I quickly stifled the internal mention. Now wasn't the time to worry about my newfound biological family.

I reached the hatch that acted as a door into the weapon's room, effectively cutting off any more such thoughts. The lock was hanging loosely from the knob, having never been properly sealed again since I had last passed through. I toyed with the combination dial, running my fingers over the grooves. I needed a moment to steel myself.

After all, I kind of had zero idea what I was getting myself into.

I adjusted my ponytail so that it wound tightly around my dark blonde locks. An almost brown tendril flopped onto my forehead, and I smoothed it back automatically. If all else failed, at least my hair would be secure. My sanity, on the other hand, was already a lost cause.

Squashing down any last nerves, I applied gentle pressure to the door. The hatch inched outward relatively soundlessly, pardoning a few grating noises from the hinges. I placed a foot over the lip of the passage and onto the cold metal of the towering shelf, deliberately moving as slowly as possible so as to alleviate the chance of any obtrusive sounds. I crouched and brought the remainder of my body forward.

The room was oddly silent given Dylan's previous statement as to its contents. Anxiety rippled through the forefront of my consciousness. Had he just exaggerated or had the paranormals already been moved someplace else? I slunk toward the edge of my perch and peered over, intent on finding out the answer.

And oh boy, was Dylan right.

Neat row upon row of figures snaked between the storage units. As I couldn't view much but the tops of heads, I'm not sure what Dylan saw or heard that gave him the impression that the assembled persons were paranormals, but the army claim had been spot on. Each individual, ranging in size and gender, stood at attention, their arms flattened against their sides and their chins raised obediently. None of them so much as wavered on their feet or issued a hushed word. Their stillness was unnatural.

I caught movement out of my peripheral vision. An Eraser stalked down the line of attendees. Conscious of my surroundings, I reluctantly straightened to a stand. Fortunately, no one was paying attention to the soaring ceiling, so my presence went unnoticed. As my gaze swept around the room, I took count of the other Erasers wriggling around the perimeter. Six that I could discern from my perch. There was plenty of warehouse left, though. I had no way of knowing just how large a number of the ferocious mutts there were.

So Marian had both an undetermined amount of Erasers and potential paranormals at her disposal. But why? If she wanted to lay siege to the complex then she had all but already succeeded. She had corralled the hunters into detainment, and she hadn't even needed the numbers assembled here to do as such. She had all the access she needed. What was with the flashy assembly?

Motion stirred in one of the shadowed aisles beneath me. I flattened myself against the top of the shelf and shimmied over so that I could peek at the ground. A hooded figure was slinking through the darkness, shying away from the puddles of slanted light cast from the giant fixtures swinging from the iron rafters. The unmistakeably male form paused and peered around. For a moment, a patch of his jaw and nose was exposed.

Ari.

I wish that I could say I descended with only the lightest thump as I touched the ground, but in reality I was less than graceful on my new wings. My feathers unfolded with an audible swoosh and I jerked awkwardly as I tried to lower vertically in sharp spurts of lost altitude. I narrowly avoided clipping my wings against the supplies littering the shelves, which would have certainly drawn attention from the surrounding guards as they thundered against the concrete. By the time I was safely on my feet and had retracted my wings, Ari had whirled and was staring wide-eyed at me.

"What are you doing here?" he hissed, almost indiscernible.

"What are you doing here?" I retorted just as discreetly. My hands found their way to my hips. Yeah, hands on the hips- it was kind of my thing.

He rubbed his temple and emitted a half garbled sigh. "I'm trying to blend in. I know some of these guys. They'll tell me what the hell's going on around here, but I have to make sure I talk to the right ones."

"You have connections with Erasers?" I responded dubiously.

Once again, I found myself on the short end of receiving things. Clearly Ari knew much more about the School and Jeb's behavior than I did. I had never paid him much attention other than when he had new contraptions and weapons to share, so it was entirely plausible that he had moved between the School and CSM without my noticing his periodic absences.

I knew I should have ceased my grilling and maybe brought up the whole brother/sister thing. I had flat out refused to entertain the much needed conversation when he had first relayed our siblinghood to me. I mean, I had just figured out I'd had a six year old digging around in my head for weeks. Finding out I had a brother immediately after was just too much of a bittersweet cherry on top for me to face.

He didn't seem to be bothered about that now, though. "They're still people, Max. And just like people, some are worse than others."

With that, he swiveled on his heel and approached the end of the aisle. I padded after him, careful to remain hidden. After a few moments, he darted into the open. I followed, but forced myself to stay in the relative shadow, instead surveying his ensuing interaction through sly observation.

Ari slid toward an Eraser who was scribbling something on a clipboard. The Eraser whirled upon feeling Ari's hand on his shoulder, launching into defensive mode. When he got a glimpse of Ari's face, he relaxed, but the tension didn't totally leave his shoulders.

"You shouldn't be here," he murmured, glancing around nervously.

Ari shrugged and flashed him a wicked, daredevil grin. "Then tell me what you're all doing and I'll be out before you can blink."

"You know I can't do that." The Eraser may or may not have been genuinely apologetic. I couldn't really tell through the raspy voice and fangs and overall hairiness.

"Strictly speaking no," Ari retaliated, "but come on man, we're friends."

The Eraser scratched the back of his head and shifted uneasily. After a few tense moments of deliberation, he caved.

"It's Marian," he revealed. "She's testing some manipulation technique for the Doomsday Group. It's how they get their followers so … dedicated to the cause, you know? She's been having us capture creatures. And I don't mean like the ones created in a lab. She's been biding her time until she could gather enough specimens. They want to figure out how effective their control is over a wide range of chemical balances and imbalances. Science stuff. Right now she's monitoring how susceptible they are to persuasion, how long the effects of the control last, and how easily it's broken."

He was interrupted by a stream of crude curses and shouting. The outbreak was met by barks from several Erasers as they addressed the issue. I couldn't see what was happening. The sounds were coming from a lane further down the room.

"It doesn't always last long," Ari's Eraser buddy commented grimly.

One last piercing note of a scream, and there was silence.

"What is this!?" a new voice snapped.

I lurched back and melded into the shadows. Ari wasn't quite as fortunate. A bigger, much burlier Erased stalked by my hiding place. A shotgun was slung on a strap around his shoulder. His tone was grumbling and downright mean. It didn't take much to predict that he was on the 'worse' spectrum of Erasers that Ari knew.

The first Eraser began stuttering and stumbling over a response. I crept back to where I could see and watched the lines deepen sourly on Ari's face. He flicked his gaze to the left, then to the right, as if contemplating an escape. Eventually, he stopped searching for opportunities to run and resigned himself to confrontation.

"Nothing to worry about," Ari said calmly, turning his mouth into his most placating smile. "We were just talking."

The larger Eraser, whose back was to me, fingered the hilt of his gun. Austerely, he grumbled, "Forgive me, but you don't look like someone who has the authority to 'just talk' about anything."

Ari sucked air between his teeth and cringed, tilting his head to one side. Apparently he had run out of excuses. He shrugged apathetically and agreed. "Yeah, you're probably right."

I rolled my eyes. Maybe he had a plan. Maybe he didn't. Either way, I wasn't going to sit here and see him suffer any abuse at the hands of this steroid pumping flea bag.

"Unfortunately for Ari all the authority in this family runs through me."

Ari face palmed and shook his head. So he had a plan. Whoops. I had already stepped into the hall, brandishing my feathers and glaring intimidatingly. Mr. Macho turned sharply, flipping his gun into his hands. He pointed the barrel directly at my heart and rested his finger on the trigger.

This may come as a surprise to you, but threats to my life did not make me happy.

Some sort of recognition flickered in the Eraser's eyes. Perhaps Marian had warned them to watch out for me. In any case, he didn't hesitate. He squinted down the length of the gun and shot with a sharp crack.

The bullet spiraled toward me as if in slow motion. With little effort, I raised my hand and plucked it from the air. The heat emanating from my hand had melted the metal before the shell even reached the ground. I let the remnants spurt between my fingers and drip on the concrete like splatters of silver blood.

The two Erasers and Ari were astounded. I could find no satisfaction in my superhuman feat, though. The gunshot had attracted the attention of the rest of the guard, and I could hear them thundering down the aisles, orbiting ever closer to where the sound had originated.

I spun, ran, and leaped up. Air surged beneath my wings and lifted me above the heads of the approaching Erasers, who skidded to a halt and craned their necks upward as I soared past. Vague orders for my capture were released. I couldn't move very fast, though. My wingspan was too large for the confined area between the shelves. The tops of my feathers brushed against the cold metal and sprinkled ash on everything beneath. I rotated my shoulders and tilted myself so that I could rise above the shelves.

Out in the (relative) open, I was free to pick up speed. I quickly realized I had nowhere to go. I couldn't leave Ari behind. The most I could do was distract the Eraser's in time for him to get out … except he wouldn't be able to, because I had ordered Fang, Angel, and Dylan to prevent just such an action. Unless I could somehow clue him in on where the trap door was, we were trapped.

I swooped toward the main entrance of the weapon's room, attempting to draw all the Eraser's to one end of the warehouse. It was there that I sighted Marian, hovering over a set of monitors. On cue, she glanced upward. Her lips smiled but her eyes plainly spelled out murder.

Tucking my feathers, I dove directly toward her. It was very pleasant to watch her eyes widen in terror before she ducked into a ball and rolled beneath the table. I reared up out of my steep dive, went for a loop, and landed heavily on top of the counter, smashing a few screens in the process. Marian ceased her cowering and crawled from beneath the table. She grasped a chair and pulled herself up with a stagger.

"You impenitent child," she snarled. "I'm absolutely fed up with your destructive interventions."

I scowled and snorted. "Says the woman with a diabolical plan to wipe out the entire human population."

"Human nature is fickle and self destructive. If you don't destroy yourself then you destroy one another. Existence is meaningless in a world run by imbeciles. I want to repopulate this planet with beings superior in intellect and skill, resistant to disease and injury, more powerful and stable than any civilization in history," she crowed, a manic glint entering her eyes. She was still sprawled on the ground, her ankles crossed and her arm thrown over the cushion of a chair. The cold logic of her demeanor was gone and had been replaced with a blazing inferno.

I bent in front of her, my knee grinding into the concrete. She shrunk away from my glare. I couldn't blame her. The appearance of my molten veins and sparking feathers must have been unnerving. A phoenix was a sight to behold.

Quietly, and with deadly serenity, I said: "Your super humans will have the stability of a nuclear reactor. One slip of a cooling rod, and your entire idealistic world will crash and burn right before your eyes. I won't let it get that far."

She grinned, her eyes flicking over my shoulder. "You won't have a choice."