Maximum Ride: Next Generation » Places

         Manna wasn't going to admit it, but he was enjoying himself a bit. The people on the ground scrambled for cover as he threw clumps of machinery at him, and it was almost like that game he heard the guards talking about. Whacking fowls? Smack a fool? Manna couldn't quite remember the name. Eh, whatever. Not important right now.

"Whoa!" Manna dodged to the left as he heard a bang, and something whistled past his shin. He looked down at the ground and yup, guards. One of them was kneeling on the ground and was clearly the only who had shot at him just now, and Oh shit -

Manna zoomed to the left as the guards fired as one. Before the sounds of gunfire had faded, the fifteen year old boy was halfway across the courtyard and looking for cover with wide eyes, panting for breath. His energy reserves had already been depleted from before, and with that last zoom Manna could feel himself starting to tire. He could still fly for a while so long as he went at normal speed, but another zoom like that would... Would be very bad, considering the situation.

There wasn't any cover to be seen, much to Manna's dismay. Normally he'd be glad about that since he liked the open sky, but considering that there were people shooting at him and the scientists were recollecting themselves enough to call for more guards, and Manna could see that some of the more braver ones were not heading for the inside of the building like the rest but were loading up the stun guns instead. Manna felt a chill run down his back at the sight; they had small range and like on,y shoot once before needing to be reloaded, but when they hit it felt like someone had jabbed him with a knife on the inside.

Manna flew and positioned himself behind the scientists. It placed him within the sights of the guards, but the white-coats couldn't see him and between the two, Manna would take the bullets any day. His wings fluttering to keep him in the air, Manlna considered the situation.

He was being shot at and had no cover, the white-coats had electricity guns, he was definitely going to suffer for being a distraction for the others once he got caught (Manna tried not to think about electricity or food), and now that he thought about it the flock was escaping without him. Manna tried not to feel hurt about the last one and wondered if they knew he was being a distraction. Probably not. Agh.

'Uh, Aria?' he tried to broadcast his thoughts as far as he could, imagining that he was yelling it through a speaker. Manna tried to keep his voice calm and light, but his voice was underlined with tiredness and a bit of the hurt shone through. 'Aria, can you hear me? I'm making a distraction in the courtyard.' Changing tactics, he flew around the courtyard, taking random directions to prevent people from aiming at him, and as he continued his thoughts started to tremble. I won't be able to keep it up much longer, but it should be enough for you guys to run, I think. Probably. So, er, don't come to the courtyard, ok?