He looked down at the city below him with a sort of restrained awe. He had never once, not a single moment in his life, taken flight for granted. It was his blessing.
It was also coincidentally his curse. He took pride in the double-sided nature of the concept.
Brium took a breath, noting how cold it was. He was over the city of Denver, about three-quarters of a mile high, and it was dark enough that he had a minimal chance of being spotted by anyone.
He glanced left to right, searching. He knew what he was looking for, but no such luck as of yet. But the monotonous search left his complicated mind with loads of time to think. And he jumped all over the opportunity. How had the Erasers found him this time? He wondered once again if he had some sort of tracking device planted in him somewhere. That seemed likely, but he hadn't made time to get any X-ray done. That would require seeing some sort of licensed, normal person. And he had wings. Not exactly what normal Doctors were used to. No, he would continue living as he had done the past three and a half years: On the run, killing whomever followed. Except Ari. He still had sympathy for Ari.
Even though Ari had come after him three times now.
How many times would Brium have to cripple the poor kid before he was left alone?
Brium had been 'created' at the School. He used the word 'created' because he had yet to figure out a better way to classify his emergence into the world. Created... It would have to do. He was one of the first of his kind, and had been told many years prior that he was one of the best examples of. He had been brutally trained at the School, brutally educated there, and then (brutally) escaped from there at age thirteen.
He was right in the middle of his forty-first month of freedom. He was still enjoying it.
Ari... Brium remembered quiet clearly of what Ari was like as a (completely human) kid. Kind of irritating, sure. But basically harmless. He was Jeb's son, and that unfortunately was inexcusable. Brium didn't know just how to classify Ari's father. Was he an evil man? Many would say so. Brium had just decided to avoid him completely. He was evil enough, and because of that Ari couldn't be trusted.
And then they had tried making an Eraser out of the kid. Brium had been surprised when he had first laid eyes on the new 'improved' Ari. Before he broke the wolf boy's left arm and shot him twice in each shoulder.
Brium's thoughts drifted back to Jeb. He hadn't seen the guy since his initial escape, and much time it seemed had passed. But Ari had said that Jeb wanted to see him.
Interesting.
Brium sighed to himself; a pointless gesture, though he attempted to do as many of those as possible, because he blended in much better that way. Rolling eyes, shrugging, things like that were the... human things to do in a given circumstance that called for them.
And it all had to work to best preserve his freedom.
Freedom... Brium was free, but he knew that others weren't. He had escaped by himself. He was still ashamed of that. There were others like him at the School, and he had left them; essentially abandoning them. He felt remorse for his inactions, but he knew that he was much better off on his own.
But miracles can happen. Brium allowed himself a smile, a pointless gesture, but one he did enjoy. Others had escaped just like he had. Others that were just like him.
One group of Erasers that he had... removed from being any sort of threat, had told him that others like him had escaped. They referred to these escapees as 'the flock'. Why had they mentioned this? Probably to scare him. They had said that 'the flock' AKA several other avian-mutants had gotten out of the school, been recaptured, and punished. Severely. He was told that if he cooperated and came quietly, he would be spared any punishment.
His reply was to swiftly kill all eight of the Erasers.
That was two years ago. They still hadn't given up.
Brium looked around at the lit city below him. He was circling over the outskirts, looking for a building that best suited what he was after.
A church in a small residential suburb would be perfect... He needed somewhere to gather his bearings, and a House of God would be a good place to go. Not to mention a church might just be open at this hour. And (not to mention again) Brium had some questions he would like to ask the Priest or whoever was in charge of the place. He was taking a poll of sorts.
More on that later.
Brium's thoughts drifted back to his thirteen years (and some change) at the School. He had been raised alone. With little contact with anyone besides the 'scientists' directly associated with the experiment known as his life. He had seen Ari only a handful of times, always during one of Jeb's visits, and he had seen only one other mutant like him. When he was ten, he was paired with some kid named Fang in a fight to the death with four Erasers. The two bird kids had won. Fang was young, and didn't fight so well, but Brium was by then already quite adept. The pair had won mainly on Brium's skills with Fang serving as more of a distraction then anything else. Brium never saw Fang again. Or anyone else even remotely like him.
But they existed. He knew that. What he didn't know, until recently, was that not only did more like him escape, they hadn't been recaptured at all. Brium read the news as much as he could, and for an interesting few days the papers had been splashed with pictures of 'bird kids' as they had been called. So, unless someone was pulling an amazingly coincidental, complicated prank, then there were indeed others out there.
He had counted six of them, though defining features had been difficult to spot, so he guessed Fang wasn't among them. He was probably dead. Life spans at the school were short. Brium knew that, as he had killed more than his fair share of School creations.
Anyway, Brium hadn't yet decided if he should seek these fellow freaks out. He had been alone for his whole life. Even more so during the past three and a half years (a price of freedom that he paid gladly) and he didn't know if being around others would be for the best.
Not to mention since he was busy tying to build a plan to bring down everyone involved with his creation. He tried several ideas so far, and none seemed to work anywhere near as well as he had hoped. So, for a while, he had just settled into the routine of killing anything that dared to come after him. Annoying his creators would have to suffice until he figured something else out. Many of his plans involved bloodshed, and he didn't want to drag others, especially some of the only others like him, into a conflict where they'd be in danger.
They had survived at least two years on their own, so he wasn't particularly worried about their safety. Perhaps best to just leave them be.
Brium glanced to his left, and spotted a church that looked somewhat removed from general areas of population. He hoped it was open.
He swerved silently, and searched for a dark place to land.