Storm and Fang did a little more talking, but I decided to take a little nap. Of course considering that day’s events, I ended up sleeping for about twelve hours. I was awakened by some erasers that decided it would be fun to come over and shake my cage.
“EEK!” I screamed like the little girl that I was as my wing caught in between two of the bars of my cage. The erasers laughed evilly, ignoring the threats coming from my friends.
“Put her down!” Storm reached both arms out of his cage and grabbed one erasers leg. He pulled trying to trip him, but the eraser was too heavy. I folded in my wings and curled up in a ball as I bounced around the cage. Already I could tell that my body would be covered with bruises.
“Somebody help!” I screamed. Then the door from which the erasers had come from suddenly burst open. All heads turned and my cage was dropped. I sat, still curled up, and whimpered. Tears filled my eyes as the pain completely set in. There wasn’t one spot on my body that didn’t hurt.
“Max!” someone yelled. I looked up to see a small girl, younger then both Gazzy and River, with blue eyes and curly blond hair that rested like a halo on her head. Then I saw the ever-famed Maximum Ride. Standing in front of the open door with light flooding in behind her, she truly did look like the hero that everyone had said she was. She ran over and began to attack the erasers. There were two of them, but she made easy work of them, punching and kicking. At one point she clapped her hands over one’s ears. Note to self: use that later.
She then began to undo the latches on our cages, and soon I was free. I was about to get up when pain shot through my ankle. I looked down to see my foot caught between the bars of the cage.
“Crap!” I murmured. I looked around to see if any of my new friends hadn’t escaped yet. Then I spotted Storm. He was just about to make a run for the door. “Storm!” I yelled. He turned and ran over to me. “My foot’s stuck!”
Storm bent over my foot, casting weary glances at the erasers that twitched on the floor. He gave a huge yank that hurt so bad that I could barely stifle my scream of agony. Despite the pain, my foot had been set free. I tried to stand on it, but pain like lightning caused me to collapse and of course I fell on one of my forming bruises. Before I knew what was happening Storm slid one hand under my legs and his other hand behind my back and lifted me up, holding me wedding style. I bounced in his arms as he bolted for the open door. I whimpered pathetically as the lightning pain in my ankle finally begin to die down.
Storm ran through the halls with me in his arms, not even breaking a sweat after racing through three long hallways. And I mean LONG hallways. They seemed to go on forever before we came to the next turn. A few times I had to suppress the urge to apologize as we barged into scientists pushing carts. I didn't though because when I saw what was on the carts it filled me with hatred and disgust. They held trays containing syringes of all shapes and sizes and needles and stethoscopes and all sorts of other doctory tools of torture. I glared at the scientists as we passed them, their stunned faces amused me.
Eventually we came to a door with a huge, bright red EXIT sign above it where everyone was waiting. On it it said, "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY! ALARM WILL SOUND!" Max shrugged and pushed the bar to open it. Immediately a deafening alarm rang all around us. I wished i had headphones to block out the ear piercing sound... headphones... loud sounds... Screech!!! My mind went into panic mode as i realized that the orange haired avian wasn't with us.
"We have to go back!" I screamed over the sound of the alarm. "Screech is still in there!"
Storm's eyes widened and he looked over to Max. I knew he was more worried about Maggie then he was Screech though. Max met his eyes and ran over to us.
"Long time no see, Storm." She said putting her hands on her hips. She looked around at each of the mutant kids and I could tell she was counting them off to make sure she had gotten everyone to safety. "So we're missing the eavesdropper and the mockery?" She said with a little half smile.
Storm nodded, "In the isolation tanks." I was surprised by the amount of worry on his face.
Max looked at me. He coffe brown eyes showed little emotion and her face just had that tough look to it, like a "don't mess with me, I can kick your butt," kinda look. She had various scars that confirmed it too.
"This is-"
I slapped my hand over his mouth. "I'm capable of introducing myself. It's my ankle that's broke, not my voice box." I glared at him. "I'm Ember." I said trying to match the little emotions look that Max pulled off so well. It didn't quite work though because thinking about my ankle had made it hurt even more.
"So I take it you can't walk?" She asked examining my ankle.
I shook my head. "nope."
She looked around and I could tell she was seeking out a certain person. Her eyes locked on the dark boy they had called Fang. He must have felt her eyes on him because he turned and when he saw her he immediately came over to us.
"Fang, I need you to hold this one while we save a few more avians." She said to him. He nodded and Storm practically threw me into his arms. He caught me without flinching the slightest bit. He was extremely strong. I felt his Dark eyes on me. I took a second to get a closer look at him. He had long, shaggy, black hair that drooped over one of his very dark brown eyes which displayed absolutely no emotion.
Max and Storm sprinted back into the building, leaving me with Fang.
"So Ember," He said in his voice which sounded soft yet firm, "can you fly?"
"I-I did once..." I stammered, caught off guard by his question.
"Sounds good to me," Apparently there wasn't much time for questions with these guys because before I could ask one, a group of erasers swarmed out through the door and began to advance on us. Fang threw me into the air with a grunt. I found that he had been able to throw me surprisingly high. I unfolded my wings with a fwoosh and flapped frantically. Within a few seconds I was ascending higher into the air.
I chad gotten at least fifty feet up before I felt someone run into me from behind. I let out an oof and fell about ten feet before catching myself.
"Heh heh, sorry." Gazzy said, his face turning red with embarrassment. "Iggy pushed me and I lost my balance." He put a hand behind his head and gave me an innocent smile.
"I did not!" Iggy flew gracefully over to us. I wished I could fly like that. Every flap of my wings was shaky and clumsy compared to theirs.
"Oh wait, yeah I did." It was Iggy's voice, but he just glared at Gazzy who was giggling to himself.
"Cut it out Gazzy! This is kinda serious!" Iggy said, obviously irritated, but I was extremely confused.
"Wha?" I made a weird face at them. Gazzy was laughing hysterically now.
"He imitated Iggy's voice." I turned to see a girl that I hadn't seen before. She had tan skin and curly black hair. Her eyes were dark brown and her wings were a pretty russet color. "I'm Nudge." she said. "You mst be new. You should know that we all have cool powers. I can hack computers, and Iggy can feel colors, and Gazzy can imitate voices, and Max can fly at like lightspeed, and Fang can turn invisible if he sits still long enough. We have a dog named Total. I think he's with Angel, but he can talk and he has wings like us. Oh and I almost forgot! Angel can read minds so don't think anything weird when you're next to her. And also don't stand too close to Gazzy after we eat or you'll find out why he's called the Gasman."
I stared wide-eyed at Nudge. This girl talked at about a thousand miles per hour! I nodded as if I understood what she had just said. She giggled. And did a loop-de-loop in the air. I stared at the ground far below, wishing I could do that too.
"You'll be able to fly just as good as us before long," A small voice said. The little blonde girl from earlier had appeared at me side, "you just need some practice." I was utterly confused.
"How-" I began, but Angel interupted me.
"I can read minds." she explained with a proud look on her face.