"I'm sorry to hear that," Ari said evenly, then he lunged at me with the knife.
I let myself fall backward off my branch, doing a flip in the air and unfurling my wings as I came right-side up. I didn't even look back as I took off through the woods again, fast, heading back to the general area where the flock had split up. I felt sorry for Ari. Or, at least, I potentially felt sorry for him, if he would quit trying to kill me.
94
"Max!" It was Fang. Immediately I zoomed upward and burst through the treetops into the open sky above. He was up there, fighting three Erasers at once. I streaked over and chopped one right where his neck met his shoulder. He cried out, and then I grabbed his wings and pulled them together, hard, in back of him. He shrieked in pain and started to drop like a rock. It was a little trick we'd learned back when we were first starting to fly. I'd forbidden us to do it to one another.
That Eraser crashed down into the trees below and disappeared from sight.
"Where's everybody else?" I called to Fang as I moved in.
"Gone-Total too," he said. "This is all that's left." He circled up to the right and then fell down sideways, landing hard on an Eraser's wing. Their wings were heavier than ours but not nearly as smoothly integrated into their bodies. This one folded also and fell clumsily downward. He tried to get aloft again, but just as his wings extended, he hit the trees. We heard him screaming all the way down to the ground.
"That had to hurt," said Fang.
"Should we go-," I began, but just then Ari shot out of the trees and smashed right into Fang at full speed. He wheeled around surprisingly quickly and hovered in the air, facing us.
"We end this now!" he growled.
"I agree," said Fang in a low, deadly tone, and he rushed Ari.
Remembering what had happened when they'd fought on the beach, I got ready to fling myself between them, but Fang zipped in like a hawk and managed a snap kick to Ari's chest so hard that Ari started coughing. Before I could even say, "Good one," Fang had circled and chopped the side of his hand down on Ari's neck. Ari dropped about ten feet because he momentarily forgot to flap, but then his face set in anger and he surged upward again. His wingspan must have been eighteen feet, because he was a full-size Eraser. I could only imagine how hard he had to work just to stay aloft.
Fang whirled in a tight circle, like a hawk ballet, and flew in sideways before Ari could even react. His fist crashed against the side of Ari's face, and I saw Ari's nose start to bleed. I guessed Fang was remembering the beach incident too.
Ari roared and came right at Fang, claws slashing the air, teeth bared, eyes burning. He had power, hatred, and Eraser strength on his side. But Fang was fast and nimble, and had a truckload of resentment and hunger for revenge.
It was a pretty even match.
I wanted to jump in and help, but I sensed it was one of those boy things and I should stay out of it unless Fang was really getting his butt kicked. So I hovered nearby, scanning the horizon, hoping the rest of the flock was safe at the bat cave. No other Erasers seemed to be around, amazingly, and choppers didn't suddenly appear. It was just your basic one-on-one mutant-vs.-mutant fight.
Which Fang seemed to be winning. I mean, let's hear it for resentment and revenge. Even though Ari was probably actually stronger than Fang, Fang was so quick and so, so mad.
I winced as I heard the bone-jarring crack of Fang's fist against the side of Ari's head. The blow spun his head sideways, and Fang darted in with a fast side kick right to Ari's ribs. I saw Ari's grimacing face and hoped this would be over soon, before he got in a lucky hit.
Again Fang swung a hard left punch. Ari turned at the last minute and caught it right in the muzzle. Blood started dripping out of his mouth. "You-," Fang said as he punched him from the right. "Quit-" Ari tried to back up, but he was clumsy with his wings and ended up dropping several feet. Fang dropped also, with precision, and rammed an uppercut into Ari's ribs. I heard Ari's breath leave in a whoosh. "Attacking-" Finally Fang drew back, gave one big beat of his wings, and shot forward, feetfirst. Both feet connected forcefully with Ari's stomach, and Ari wheezed for air. "Us!" Fang finished, delivering an uppercut to the chin that literally made Ari spin backward through the air.
And he kept tumbling. I got a glimpse of his battered, rage-filled face as he fell toward the treetops, sixty feet below. He tried to catch himself, working his wings, but it was too late. He crashed into the greenery, and we heard branches snapping from up where we were.
He'd hardly managed to touch Fang.
I looked over at Fang. He was panting, sweating, watching Ari's fall with a look of cold satisfaction.
"So-working out some issues here, are we?" I said.
He gave me a dry look. "Let's go find the others."
95
Fang and I kept a lookout all the way to the bat cave. We had no way of knowing if someone was tracking us with a telescope or whatever. But we took a complicated, mostly hidden route, and ended up shooting quickly in through the overhanging vines at the cave entrance.
"Max!" Nudge said, jumping up to give me a hug. Then we were all hugging one another, and Total was jumping up and down with excited little yips.
"Are they gone?" Gazzy asked.
"For now," I said. "Fang kicked Ari's butt."
"Way to go!" Iggy said, holding up his fist. Fang bumped fists with him, trying not to look too pleased with himself.
"He has issues," Nudge whispered knowingly out of the side of her mouth. I laughed.
"Okay, guys," I said. "New agenda. Forget looking for our parents. We've hit a dead end. And besides, I don't think I could bear to give one of you up again right now. How about moving on to saving the world?"
"Yeah, let's get out of here," said Total, looking up at me.
"But where to?" asked Nudge.
"I've been thinking about that," I began.
"Florida," said Angel.
"What? Why?" I asked.
"I just feel like Florida is where we should go," Angel said, shrugging. "Plus, you know, Disney World."
"Yes! Disney World!" said Gazzy.
"Swimming pools, sunshine-I am so there," Total agreed.
I looked at Fang. He shrugged. And actually, I didn't really have any other plan.
Go with the flow, Max. Ride the flow.
After that pithy nugget from my Voice-turned-travel-agent, I said, "Well, okay, then. Florida it is. Grab your packs."
PART 5
BACK TO SAVING THE WORLD
96
"I see. You had a plan." Jeb poured himself a cup of coffee.
"Yeah," Ari said sullenly. He wasn't sure if Jeb was mad at him or not. Sometimes Jeb didn't seem mad, but then it would turn out that he was. Ari hated that.
"You were going to steal Max for yourself."
"Yeah."
Jeb took a sip of his coffee. "And why were you going to do that?"
Ari shrugged. "I just want to have her to myself. I'm tired of chasing the others. I don't care about them."
"But you care about Max. How old are you now?"
"Seven." Which was another thing. Jeb never remembered his birthday. "But I'm big. Bigger than you."
"Yes." Jeb made it sound totally unimportant. "Ari, I'm proud of you."
"Wh-what?"
Jeb turned and smiled at him. "I'm proud of you, son. I'm impressed that you made a plan for yourself, and that you chose Max."
Ari felt like the sun was shining warmly on his shoulders. But-was this a trap? He looked at Jeb warily. "Oh, yeah?"
"Yes. You're only seven, but you're thinking like a grown-up. It's incredibly interesting. Tell you what-I want to see where this takes us. We're going to find out where the flock has gone, and when we do, you can put your plan into action again."
"My plan?"
"Yes, your plan to steal Max. I'll help you make it happen. We'll take out the rest of the flock, but you have to grab Max. Where were you going to take her?"
"A place."
"We'll work out the details later. In the meantime, get some rest, eat something. I've already got people tracking the flock."
Slowly Ari turned and left the room. If this was true... An almost painful burst of joy exploded inside him. Dad was going to help. Dad had said he was proud of him. He was going to get Max all to himself. It was like Christmas and his birthday and sort of Halloween, all rolled up into one.
97
Have you ever-no, I guess you never have. If you've never flown with hawks, there's no way you'd be able to understand what it's like. Maybe if you've swum with sharks or something, not like at SeaWorld but in the ocean. That might be kind of close to this feeling.
I looked over at Nudge. Her face was serene, curly hair streaming behind her. We had just crossed the border from Virginia into North Carolina. The Appalachian Mountains rose beneath us, not as high and not nearly as pointy as the Rockies. These were older ranges, and time had softened them. See? Some of that geography stuff stuck with me after all.
We were high, high up, where oxygen was pretty thin. The sun was hot and bright on our backs and wings, and we had nothing but open sky all around us in every direction. Best of all, we'd spotted a flock of broad-winged hawks and joined them.
At first they'd scattered, wondering who the heck these huge, ugly raptors were dropping down on them, but then they'd cautiously circled back. Now we were wheeling in and among them, flying in a loose formation, the six of us and maybe twelve of them. I'd already hissed at Total to be very quiet and not make a sound. He huddled in Iggy's arms, nose quivering, small black paws twitching as he chased them in his mind.
"This is incredible," the Gasman said, tilting one wing down to soar in a huge circle around us. I grinned at him. Just two hours ago we'd been screeching out of Anne's yard as Erasers swarmed out of vans, aiming their sights at us. Now we were free, breathing thin, pure air, surrounded by creatures who showed us what to aim for: their fierce, proud beauty, awesome grace and flying skill, and unjudging acceptance of beings so incredibly different from them.
It was a huge change from, say, Erasers, who mainly showed us how to not be clumsy, predatory idiots. And I for one was thankful.
"Maybe we could just live with them," Nudge said wistfully.
"Yeah," said Gazzy. "'Cause you love eating raw squirrels and snakes and stuff."
"Eew. I forgot about that," said Nudge.
"Anyway, guys, we can't live with them," I said, stepping up to my role as full-time rainer-on-parader. "We need to get farther away."
"I want to go to Florida. You said," Total chimed in, and though the hawks had warily accepted our speech, Total's voice made them realize that he was alive. Several of them sheared off, effortlessly tipping a few feathers downward to shift their whole position in the airstream. It was so completely streamlined, the way they did it, and I practiced it myself.
We flew out of the hawks' territory, and they left us with hoarse cries. One by one we sheared off, soaring in huge, symmetrical arcs and then joining up again.
"It's like synchronized swimming," Gazzy said, pleased.
"No, it's like exhibition jets," said Iggy. "Like the Air Force Thunderbirds. We need stuff so we can leave huge trails of colored smoke behind us."
"Oh, yeah!" said Gazzy, totally psyched. "Like, we could get sulfur and-"
"And this would help our whole 'lie low, disappear' act how?" I said, bringing them back to reality.
"Oh, yeah," said Iggy.
"Maybe someday," I said, hating to see him and the Gasman so disappointed. "In the meantime, let's do a vertical stack!" I said, angling upward into position. Fang put himself directly below me, carefully out of range of my feet, because he's just paranoid that way. Iggy was below him, then Gazzy, Nudge, and finally Angel on the bottom, as white as the clouds we were flying over. We were six stacked bird kids, flying in unison, making only one shadow on the clouds. Totally cool.
Of course it was too freaking peaceful to last, right? I mean, there was no way I was going to wallow in serenity for more than two seconds, right?
No, of course not.
What happened was, Gazzy suddenly pushed upward into Iggy, wanting to knock him off balance, the way all of us have done to each other a million times. It would have been fine, and even funny, if Iggy hadn't been holding, say, a mutant talking dog. For example.
But he was. And when Gazzy bumped up into him, he knocked Total out of Iggy's arms. Total gave a startled yip and then he dropped like a piece of coal, right through the clouds and out of sight.
98
Angel reached for Total as he plummeted past her, but her fingers only grazed his fur.
"Total!" she cried, and Total started barking and howling, dropping farther away, his voice trailing off.
"Oh, crap," I muttered, then veered down past Fang. "If I'm not back in two minutes, do not let Angel have another pet." Then I tucked my wings behind me and started to drop.
"Max! Get Total!" Angel shouted after me, her voice panicky.
"No, I'm dropping straight down through clouds just for fun," I said to myself. I know people always fantasize about dropping through clouds or walking on clouds, landing on clouds. The thing is, clouds are wet. Wet and usually chilly. And you can't see anything. So, not as high on the fun scale as you might think.
I followed the sound of Total's howling, letting myself fall toward the earth. Suddenly the mist cleared and I saw the ground, green and brown, below me. Plus a bunch of white-
"Aaahh!" I cried, as I dropped out of the cloud and practically onto the back of a glider plane. My feet actually brushed its thin skin before I pulled my knees up and angled my wings sharply. I slightly scraped the plane's right wing before I could pull enough to the side, then I moved my wings powerfully and rose up several yards, out of the way.
Gliders are virtually soundless. That was the lesson for today. This close I could hear the wind whistling against the smooth, streamlined plane, but there had been no sound to tip me off. That had been close. If I'd dropped in front of it...
I could no longer hear Total. Dang it! My eyes raked the air below me. I tucked my wings back and aimed downward again, shooting like a rocket instead of just letting myself fall. I poured on my new supernatural speed and roared toward the ground, and suddenly Total was in view and getting larger fast.
He was still howling pathetically. There was no time for me to slow down, so I just shot toward him, scooped him into my arms, then pulled out of the steep, steep dive about two hundred feet from the mountainside. Raising my face to the sun, I rushed upward, my wings feeling like steel, like fusion rockets. I looked ahead to make sure there was nothing above me, then I finally glanced down to check on Total.
He was crying. Large tears made wet streaks through his black fur. "You saved me," he choked out. "I couldn't fly. I was falling. But you got me."
"Yeah, I wouldn't let you fall," I told him, and rubbed behind his ears. Still weeping, he licked my cheek gratefully. I clenched my teeth.
The rest of the flock was circling overhead-Fang had made Angel stay with him. She was peering down anxiously, and as soon as she saw me coming she hurried to meet me. "You got him!" she shouted happily. "You saved him!"
Total wiggled excitedly in my arms, and I let him go over to Angel's embrace. He weighed almost half as much as she did, so she couldn't hold him long, but right now they were crying in each other's arms. Fine. Let him lick her. I rubbed my cheek against my sweatshirt shoulder.
Angel was actually crying herself, I realized. She almost never cried-none of us cried easily, and Angel was unnaturally stoic for a six-year-old. The fact that she was crying because she'd almost lost Total told me that she was majorly attached to him. Which wasn't great. I mean, I liked Total fine, but we still didn't know much about him. I wasn't 100 percent sure we could trust him.
Or me, actually. My chip.
"Oh, Total," Angel cried, her tears soaking his head. "I was so scared!"
"You were
scared!" Total said, burrowing deeper into her arms. "I thought I was gonna plotz!"
"Okay, I better take him," said Fang, holding out his hands. Total crept cautiously into his arms and tucked himself neatly into the crook of Fang's elbow.
"I need wings," said Total, still sniffling. "I need my own wings. Then things like that wouldn't happen."
Yeah, that was all I needed. A flying talking mutant dog.
99
At last, at last. Ari strode through the doors of a Best-Mart, feeling huge and powerful. Dad was going to let him have Max. She would be all his. Dad could have the others. Ari would have a chance to make Max like him. He remembered when they had fought in the sewer tunnel, in New York. That had been really bad. Max had acted as if she hated him. But now they would be friends. Soon. Very soon.
The Best-Mart was crowded-Atlanta was a big city. Ari and a couple of Eraser troops had hunkered down at a cheap hotel on the highway, waiting for dark. In the meantime, Ari had decided to celebrate.
Now he looked around the store. It was huge. Too bright, too noisy. Hot and full of people, all around. He wished he could drop a bomb on this whole place, watch it light up like a bonfire. He could do it-but he would probably just get in trouble. Again. And get the "don't call attention to yourself" lecture. Again. Ari felt like, Hellooo, I have wings! I turn into a wolf! Blending is out of the question!
But anyway, this place was full of cool stuff. Ari deserved to have something really cool. This was the clothes department. Bor-ing.
Housewares. Bor-ing.
The automotive section, which seemed as if it should be interesting but was actually bor-ing because all it had was, like, oil and windshield cleaner.
Oh, so gross, the underwear department. There was a lady right there, holding a bra! Out in the open! Oh, my God-was she crazy? Ari turned away and kept walking, fast.
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