Chapter 4: Watch the Skies

SORA

This will never get old.

I felt the breeze flow over me as I took to the sky.

Max was close behind me. She smiled and said, "Well, how does it feel to fly?"

I smiled and said, "Like you don't know."

I laughed and made a b-line for a series of clouds.

I ran my fingers though it feeling the water collect on my hands.

I flipped over while drying my hands in the process.

I smiled flying high above the ground. I've had dreams like this before. But by now I've realized my dreams seem to have a habit of coming true.

I know that for a fact.

I smiled and let my wings glide along the air currents.

Max flew up next to me and said, "Okay, you've got gliding down but, let's see how fast you can go."

Max tuck her wings in tight and flew towards the ground, at the last minute she pulled out her wings, gliding up fast.

She flew up next to me and said, "That's called a dive. You give a shot Sora."

I gulped. She smiled and said, "Don't worry I've got you just in case."

I nodded and tucked my wings in tight.

I felt the pull of gravity pulling me down head first down to earth, I quickly unfurled my wings and glided on the updraft.

Next moment I was flying next Max once again.

She smiled and said, "That was really good for your first attempt but do try to get closer to the ground if you want more speed out of it."

I gave a shy smile and said, "Thanks for the tip Max. I'll try that next time."

We flew above the thick forest that hid of cave.

I heard a small buzzing noise in coming toward us.

Max turn to me and yelled, "Hit the clouds!"

We flew up as fast as we could.

I look and saw the faint outline of something. What is that?

I looked at Max and asked, "Did you see what just saw?"

She nodded and said, " Yeah I did and it left that glowing thing near the cave."

I look down to see a small green circle appear on the ground.

I smiled and said, "They're here."

Max looked at me and said, "You mean that was your friends arriving."

I nodded and flew into a dive and began easing up near the back entrance of the cave. Max came in right behind me.

The flock stared at the strange green ring that appeared out of nowhere.

Iggy ran up to us and said, "You guys heard that too. It sounded like a jet."

I smiled and said, "I never thought the gummi ship made noise. They're usually really quite unless they're damaged."

Iggy pointed out, "We have superhuman hearing. Remember? We hear things miles away."

I gave a small smirk. Iggy sighed and said, "The majority of the flock will be hiding as will I."

Max smirked and said, "I'll go us with you Sora."

Kairi ran up to me and said, "That's them. We should probably get going."

I took a step forward and my hair flew into my face. Again.

I need a hair cut and soon. This is really getting annoying.

I looked at Kairi and asked, "Got a hair tie that I can borrow?"

She walked behind me and pulled my hair back into a ponytail.

Finally! No hair in my face all the time.

We walked around the corner to see, Goofy and Donald running at me.

They both yelled out, "SORA!" and tackled me to the ground.

I yelled out, "OW! GUYS IT GOOD TO SEE YOU, BUT PLEASE GET OFF! OWWWW!"

My two friends climbed off me.

Goofy said, "Sorry Sora we got carried away."

I smiled and said, "It's ok, you didn't know."

I knew I had grown a lot but, being as tall as Goofy, told me I was defiantly tall.

Donald waddled forward and said, "We're just glad your alright."

Max walked up behind me and said, "So this is the infamous Donald and Goofy, I've heard so much about."

She held out her hand and said, "I'm Maximum Ride, but please just call me Max."

Donald and Goofy looked at each other and back at Max.

Donald smiled and said, "Aren't you freaked out that were talking animals?"

She smiled and said, "No, not really."

Angel and Total walked up to me and Angel said, "It's probably the fact that you told us about them and that Total can talk."

Total smiled and said, "By the way, you mouse friend is waiting with Riku."

Goofy looked at Total and asked, "Do all animals talk here?"

I walked by and said, "No just Total."

I walked over to the King and Riku who were waiting for me patiently.

The King looked at me and said, "Riku wasn't joking when he said you grew."

I held my hand to the back of my head and smiled.

The King smiled and said, "It's good to see you're okay Sora."

I heard the rustling of leaves.

I smiled and said, "It's ok these are my friends. You guys can out."

The rest of flock came out of the bushes.

I looked at the King and said, "King Mickey, I'd like you to meet the flock. My only company in The School."

The King smiled and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm King Mickey and this is Donald and Goofy."

Angel smiled and said, "You have a keyblade too, just like Sora."

The king stared in shock of she had just said.

"Angel you know that's not polite." I said.

She said, "Sorry Sora but sometimes it hard to control."

Donald asked, "Control what?"

Max smirked and said, "This is Angel, she can read minds."

The three looked at the little girl.

The flock seem to lighten up after the King held up a bag of food and said, "Are you guys hungry?"

The king tossed some food to everyone there.

Iggy held it up and said, "Can you tell me what this is?"

The King looked up and said, "It's a sandwich. But why..."

Max flat out said, "That's Iggy. He's blind, though most of the time he doesn't act like it."

She smiled and said, "Then there's Fang, Nudge, Gasman, and Total the talking dog."

After we all ate the King turned to me and asked, "Sora if you don't mind we would like to know what happen to you?"

I sighed and said, "Knew this was coming."

Max sighed and said, "Let's get the big part out of the way first."

She and the rest of the flock unfurled their wings letting them stretch out from being tucked into their backs.

The King stare as I slowly pulled mine out as well.

I flapped them into the full extent letting the flecks of silver shine through.

A few feather fell down as I folded them down.

The King, Donald, and Goofy stared in awe of the winged children and of me.

The King looked at me and said, "Sora what did they do to you and your friends?"

I looked down and said, "They experimented on me and the flock, making us 98% homo-sapiens and 2% avian."

Goofy and Donald looked confused, but King Mickey seem to understand the full gravity of what I said.

Nudge sighed and said, "We're bird kids or Avian Americans, which ever you prefer."

He whispered out, "You are all like this? How?"

Max looked up, nodded, and said, "My name is Maximum Ride, me and my flock were raised in a secret lab called The School."

Max finished her tale by telling about me and our escape out.

She even explained the gentics they used to make me like this.

Donald looked up at me and said, "I knew the people that took you were bad, but what they did is pure evil."

I nodded and said, "They do a lot of horrible stuff to the kids there. I only wish we could save them but some can't even survive outside of there."

King Mickey placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "Well you are all safe now."

I felt a sudden breeze blow by.

The wind russled through my wings shaking a few feathers loose.

I looked at the rest of the flock who seem to have the same idea.

Gazzy yelled, "Up, up and away! Last one in the air is a rotten egg!"

We all jumped up and began gliding along the breeze.

I looked down to see Riku and Kairi smiling and waving.

They understood how this felt. How it felt to fly.

The King, Donald and Goofy stared up and watched as we flew up higher and higher.

I looked over to Max and nudged toward the ground.

She gave smile and said, "Let's give our guest a taste of what means to be a bird kid."

We all dived down to the ground.

I picked up Kairi, Max got Riku, Fang grabbed the King, Iggy grabbed Goofy, and Nudge grabbed Donald.

We took them for the ride of their lives as we flew up higher.

Donald laughed and said, "This is Awesome!"

Goofy ran his fingers through the clouds as I did earlier.

The King looked toward me as me and Kairi flew a bit faster.

We flew for about ten minutes when Angel stopped dead in her tracks.

Angel turned to us and said, "We need to get out of here. Now!"

I looked in the distance and saw a pack of flying erasers.

Max yelled, "Ah Hell. We can't go that far, or let alone fight with passengers."

Kairi looked at me and asked, "What's going on?"

I looked at her and said, "Erasers with wings, and coming in fast."

I looked down to the green circle. I smiled and said, "To the gummi ship!"

The flock nodded and dived down to the glowing circle.

Everyone got into the circle and Donald activated the teleporter.