Earth

A young lad, about the age of 13, with silver and black metallic wings, was thrown back into his small dog cage. His lightly tanned face had some blood on it, from yet another rough and ruthless training session. His lower lip was busted open, along with a deep cut just above his left eye. The young dark brown hair boy leaned against the back of the cage the best he could, his wings slowly folded around his body.

"Another waste of time session. I swear if this subject doesn't start improving, we're going to have to exterminate him." One whitecoat said to another as they walked away from the cage. Blade was wearing a dark blue tee shirt, which was torn and dirty, with a pair of khaki cargo pants, which were also dirty. Fortunately, Blade had been sneaky enough to grab a pair of knives that were designed especially for his body style, they hid underneath his wings in a special sheath. Blade waited patiently as the whitecoat or demons, as he calls them, to leave. Once he heard the door shut and no sign of the demons, Blade slowly stretched his wings out the best he could and spun around really fast. He repeated this several times, until he heard several of the wires snap and a good portion of the cage break free.

Even though there was a good amount free, Blade still had trouble climbing out, mostly due to his wings adding a few inches to his body mass. He kicked and pushed and pulled at the damaged cage, and after each assault, he would try to climb out. Blade struggled to break free for a good bit of time, luckily, no demons had come back into the room while his attempt at freedom. Once he was finally through, he stood up and stretched his body and wings.

From her years watching and waiting Talon had developed a special ability to wake at the slightest sound. The food steps of a White Coat, the breathing of those around her, squeaking of a cart. Needless to say she hardly ever got more then an hour. Not to mention how strong smells could wake her. When they had brought Blade back in she hasn't even needed to move to know he was injured.

Talon could tell each of her friends apart by sent. Blade was always reeking of metal. Aria was sweet. Like sugar water. But Talon was never sure if that was real or something Aria made her feel. Frostbyte was always cold. Ice that would burn you at a touch. Eclipse was blood. All blood. Most of the time it Talon could stand it but if she was injured it became almost over powering.

So when the sent of metal began to smell slightly burnt she sat up. Fingers grasping the bars she peered out of her cage. Blade was beating his wings against the cage and the friction cause a bit of smoke to rise up. Talon sighed in relief. At least there was no fire.

Pressing her face against the bars Talon let out a harsh whisper. 'Blade! Out! Out! Us out!'

Aria sat as far back from the door of her cage as possible. It really wasn't very far. She wore worn, faded jeans and a loose gray t-shirt, and sat with her knees huddled up to her chest. Her dark brown hair fell nearly to her lap in straggly tangles. She had thrown a fit when one of the scientists tried to mess with it, afraid they might cut it off. In punishment for that, she sported a split lip much like Blade's, a dark bruise on one cheek, and scratches on her arms from the cage itself when she was thrown back into it.

She herself was silent, and had been for quite a while now. No speaking, because she couldn't speak. No mental words, because she couldn't summon up the energy to start a conversation while she was stuffed in a crappy dog cage in a crappy facility, listening to every creak, cough, and shuffle of her fellow inmates.

As the scientists returned with Blade and threw him back into his cage, she winced for him and shifted awkwardly to a kneel, as if expecting them to come to her next. Her expression was sullen and unhappy, but it softened with relief as they marched out the door.

She slumped against the back of her cage and watched Blade for a while. She tilted her head quizzically as he got up and began to spin around his cage, then her eyes widened in realization as the bars shrieked and tore from the sharpness of his wings.

What are you doing? The projected thought hung in the air, tentative and worried, but also eager. She didn't expect an answer; it was obvious he was escaping, and there was no time for small talk. Her bright blue wings loosened in excitement, unfolding against the pitifully small confines of her cage and molding themselves against the bars.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell of smoke and dragged herself to the front of her cage. She stared, wide-eyed with hope, as he struggled out of his prison.

Let us out too! She shouted, tugging ineffectually on the grid-like bars of her cage. Her gaze darted to the door, expecting scientists to rush through.

She glanced quickly at Talon, who was closest, then at Frostbyte and Eclipse. Her gaze lingered on Eclipse, wondering if she had enough strength to bust out of her cage as well.

There he lay. Frostbyte lay lifeless and without warmth in his body. After 48 hours of watching him, the scientists finally decided he was dead. Anyone who entered, no matter how good their sense of smell was, could not even smell any scent on him at all. So, they finally took him to the autopsy room. The cool, refrigerated, full of coldstuff autopsy room. The litteral room Frostbyte would be most powerful in.

It was not easy, making them think he was dead. He had to quickly freeze the nose of any wolf that tried to pick up a scent, keep his body temperature at room temperature, and not move a single muscle. But it worked. Frostbyte was out of his cage, and was able to cause enough trouble to help the others.

After freezing over the guards, Frostbyte found the security room. He had done a lot of watching and studying for this next part. "Alright, lets just shut down every single camera and alarm in this place. Now, disabling motion sensors....oh, and lets open the vehicle bay doors. Now, locking out all the lockdown commands, change the password to something only I would know, and there. That should keep them busy for awhile".

He turned around, to see two guards enter. They started to raise their weapons, but Lucas send rays of frost to freeze them and all their weapons solid. He also froze their mouths shut. "Laters guys, I got a train to catch".

He wondered if he could find the others, and help them as well.

Blade had stretched some and then looked at the others. He stood there thinking about whether he should help them or just leave them, but decided to help anyways because they were in the same boat as him. He didn't trust them much, in fact he didn't trust anyone, figured he'd never be hurt by someone he trusted if he didn't trust anyone. Blade slowly walked over to Talon's cage and carefully examined it, seeing if he could open the lock or if he had to cut the cage like his cage. Blade decided to screw it and cut the cage. He carefully aimed for the lock, and spun around quick, his wings acted as a cutting saw and cut through the lock. It took a moment to get it done but he did. Blade moved onto Aria's cage after he opened the door for Talon.

Blade slowly moved towards Aria's cage and examined that one as well. It had appeared that all the cages had the same lock. Blade did the same thing, spun around fast, using his wings as a cutting saw on her lock. Blade was growing tired, but he pushed through it, and finished cutting Aria's lock. He opened the door and moved onto Spencer's cage. He started spinning and cutting the lock, but half way through, Blade stepped wrong, and twisted his ankle, causing him to fall. As he fell, in the middle of a spin, his wings started cutting the floor and anything else. Once on the ground, Blade sat up and grabbed his ankle, at the same time examining the lock. He needed to finish, tried to stand up but fell down again. He tried to stand a few more times before he slowly moved back, holding his left ankle.

Talon almost swore that Blade would leave them behind but sagged in relief when he approached her cage. She snuggled to the back of the cage and allowed him to look at it for a bit. Talon came to snapping at him but her voice caught as he begun to spun. A few moments later the lock dropped off.

Talon leaped from the cage before the lock even hit the ground. The first thing she did was stretch her wings out. They were sore and stiff but damn did it feel good to move.

Aria had just gotten out when Talon went to work. She grabbed one of the bars that had popped off from Blade's cage and shoved it between the handles of the door. She couldn't smell the White Coats but that could change in a instant.

Talon could hear Blade working on the next cage and let her talons come out. She didn't much as wince. Taking a place next to him she again attempted to speak but was cut off when the boy slipped. She stepped back, only in time to avoid major damage. The front part of her shirt suffered the most but her shoulder still stung. Wincing, thought it was no worse then what she had felt before, she knelt by Blade. 'Blade....you okay?' She placed a hand on his arm and nodded up at Spencer. 'Can't smell Coats. Not close. Will change.'

Aria watched anxiously as Blade stood quietly in the middle of the room, and even more anxiously as he began to tamper with Talon's cage. She really didn't want to be left behind.

She backed off a little as he approached the front of her cage, not wanting to get cut by those deadly wings. When the lock tore away with a shriek, she quickly crawled to the front of her cage and then out of it.

Thanks! The thought-speak came in a rush of muddled words and images of gratitude; she was too excited to project them clearly.

She gained her feet and stretched her cramped wings, relishing the feel of it. However, they were taking up a lot of room, so she quickly folded them.

She looked toward Blade to see if he was okay, radiating concern, but Talon and Spencer were helping him.

We go? She asked hopefully and urgently, already turning to step toward the door. She pulled Talon's makeshift bar out of the door handle and cautiously opened it a crack to peer out.

Eventually, after getting lost, Lucas found the record room. Where they recorded everything, apparently. Including the name is the one he was born with. He liked it, Lucas. Lucas Shane. Luuuuuucaaaaaaaas. Lucas. Luuuucas. Lucaaaaaaas. Lucas. He liked the name. He grabbed his file, as well as a few others, before leaving.

As he was leaving, he ran into two guards. He flash freezed the guard's hands and feet, and maybe broke a few ribs with a punch or two. He had a lot of stored up anger. He planned to give them the cold shoulder, as well as cold other places. He started to move towards the exit, when he noticed a door starting to crack open a little. "Hello? Who is there?"

In retrospect, probably a stupid question, but he could scold himself for that later.

Blade looked at Spencer and Talon, knowing he'd have a hard time walking, or evening running. The halls were too small for them to be able to fly. "It's my ankle." Blade said. He reluctantly grabbed Spencer's hand, and pulled himself up. He still wasn't able to put much weight on his ankle, and he was beating himself over the head because of it. He heard a voice outside the door, and realized it pretty quickly as Frostbyte. "Frost, what does the hall look like?" Blade asked as he hopped over to the door.

As me moved closer to the door, his left hand slowly moved to the hilt of the knife hidden by his wings. He wasn't sure if Frostbyte was in trouble, or if he was good, but Blade wasn't going to take the chance, he was making sure he was ready. Blade wasn't sure what everyone else was trained in, but he was trained in martial arts, as well as the way of the knife and he knew he was very deadly, though he doesn't like killing.

Talon eyed Blades foot warily. She didn't know how to treat wounds even though she had been the White Coats doing thousands of times. They'd just have to figure something out.

Aria cracked the door open and a voice floated through. Talon sniffed the hair. 'Frostbyte.' She said. 'No Coat smell. We go now.' Looking over at a nearbye table Talon saw a scalpel. Careful she picked it up and handed it to Spencer. 'Take. Weapon to fight Coats.'

Talon then walked to the other two, her own weapons clicking against the tile. She picked up the bar that had been previously used to blocked to door and handed it to Aria. 'Weapon. Swing at Coats.' With the knowledge the rest of them had their own things to fight with Talon did the only reasonable thing left.

She scoped up Blade.

Now don't get me wrong. Each of the children here aren't at tip top shape. Each were skinny and way under weight. But Talon had been forced to fly for hours with weights strapped to her chest so Blade wasn't a problem. You know, long as they didn't run into an Erasers. In that area Talon had no knowledge.

She sighed. No time to dwell now. Talon had made up her mind she'd get these guys out. 'We go. Fast. Blade can't run. I can hold.'

Aria peeked out the door. No scientists running around. No swarm of erasers waiting to rip her to shreds. The hall was empty.

She started and turned nervously as Talon came up behind her with the bar she'd thrown aside. Talon had always intimidated her, for some reason, though Talon hadn't ever done anything to provoke that feeling. It was there anyway.

She nodded and took the bar, holding it near her thigh. She started for a second time when a voice spoke up outside. She peered out the door, then flung it open as she recognized the boy on the other side.

Frost! We're escaping! She cried happily. She glanced back at the others and then stepped out into the hall with Frostbyte, holding her makeshift weapon in both hands.

Which way do we go? She shifted her weight quickly from foot to foot, anxious to flee, and started down the hallway without waiting for an answer.

It was amazing that the scientists hadn't realized they were out yet. She wondered if they did know, and were laying a trap, or something.

She cast her sixth sense out in search of minds and got only a faint tingle in return. If she pushed, it might be possible to get past the mind-blocking devices the scientists used. They didn't know, but she'd always held back a lot during their telepathic experiments. But pushing had painful consequences, so she didn't risk it... yet.

Let's go! She called back impatiently. She ran a hand through her tangled hair and winced when she encountered a knot.

Manna collapsed onto the ground with a thud and didn't move an inch, gritting his teeth against the electricity his collar was sending out. A few minutes after he stopped twitching, the white-coats sighed in annoyance, and the fifteen year old boy breathed a sigh of relief when the pain stopped. He could hear the scientists mutter something that sounded like "terrible" and "worse than before", and Manna resisted the urge to grin.

Good, they still haven't notice, he thought, closing his eyes and straining to hear the conversation the scientists were having above him. Normally Manna would go on a bit longer before faking his way out of it, but another white-coat had ran in with a panicked look on his face and well, he'd been curious. He took a deep breath and forced his body to relax, trying not to frown as he made sense of their words. Detain... Subjects 20, 10, 13... Sliced cages... They're trying to esca-

"Dammit!"

Something hard kicked Manna in the ribs and sent him skidding across the ground until he crashed into the table they had set up in the field. The yelp of pain he let out was more out of surprise than anything, and Manna bite his lip and curled into himself, automatically cataloging his injuries through the pain. Bruised ribs, burnt throat, cuts on my arms with a gash across my forehead and a graze on my cheek...

He continued the diagnosis as a lab assistant pulled him up by the arm, unlocking the leash at his ankle. The scientists continued their conversation above him, discussing what precautions to take with the escapees. Burnt right ankle and I'm still a bit jittery, but gashes are healing and I'm in an open courtyard, ten people total... Manna felt a chill go over him as he heard them mutter about the Erasures. Oh crap, that's really bad.

Manna stood up shakily, woozily looking around like he had been stunned by the blow. Two scientists were at the right end of the field writing on their clipboards, the head and the one with the switch to the shock collar were talking to the man who had came with the news, arguing loud and angry. Another two were messing with the table and the one who had helped him up had called the guards over and was waiting impatiently for them to arrive, glancing at his watch every few seconds. Manna knew how that felt; somedays everything just felt so slow.

They were all distracted, and the woman holding the switch was dangling it loosely in her hands, distracted by the argument, and Manna knew one of them held the keys to unlock the collar. Hidden behind his hair, a gleam entered Manna's eyes as he made his plan. I still have enough energy left... Phase one better work.

He couldn't make his move yet, though. Manna waited, slowly moving forward as the white-coat assistant barked at him to move, like he was too exhausted to go faster than a crawl. He wobbled his way towards the door in between two other men, passing by the trio of scientists who seemed to be reaching a conclusion...

And lashed out, kicking the guard closest into the white-coats. He ran out of the way of the other guard as the first guard went bowling into the trio. The woman shrieked as the switch was knocked out of her hand and somewhere into the undergrowth a few miles away, and Manna used his wings to zip forward and punch each of the scientists in the face before quickly going through their pockets for the keys. Hurry hurry hurry whereisit?!

Someone grabbed him in a headlock as he searched the fallen woman, using their arms to squeeze the air out of him. Manna tried to push him off, the man was too strong and Manna was stuck; kneeling above a white-coat scrabbling uselessly against his restraints and gasping for air. Black spots appeared behind his eyes, and Manna dimly noticed that it was the head scientist, grim and with a black eye.

The woman stirred beneath him, and Manna gritted his teeth and swung his elbow backwards. It met flesh with a satisfying thwack, and the head scientist let him go with a grunt of pain. Coughing and gulping down oxygen, Manna wasted no time in searching her for keys. C'mon where are you...

Behind him, someone was calling the guards. Another was on the ground trying to find the switch that caused pain, everything was in chaos, and Manna still hadn't found the keys. He hadn't panicked yet, but as more scientists joined the search for the switch Manna could feel his fingers trembling and his breath quickening. Giving up the woman for a lost cause, he turned to the last scientist, who was starting to get back to the land of the living. Nonono where - YES!!

Triumphantly, he unlocked the collar and flung it towards them, clipping one of them on the ear and sending the earpiece he was wearing to the ground. The sense of relief almost made his legs collapse, but instead Manna stretched out his wings and gave a cursory glance at his surroundings, trying to figure out what to do. Phase one was complete, and it was time for phase two - causing as much trouble as possible.

The place was an uproar. Manna flitted around and did what he could to spread chaos around, avoiding the bodyguards who where chasing him. If the background, he heard someone talking about protocols for his sudden rebellion and another calling for guards, and Manna smirked and used the clipboard he had stolen to give the speaker a satisfying smack across the head.

"Can't catch me!" He yelled at them, zooming towards the table. They ran towards him, and Manna flipped the table at them, letting out a whoop as the machinery fell to the floor with a crash, damaging equipment that was probably worth thousands.whatever, he thought unrepentantly, grabbing pieces of it up from the floor to throw at them. In the distance, he could see people approaching. Success. its not like they can't replace it anyway.

I hope this gives the others enough time.

Frostbyte looked around. "I sort of screwed around in their security systems by the way. Changed the passwords, shut off the alarms, also I may have looked through the records and...deleted some stuff. Not on accident. Took some hard copies, and I opened quite a few doors for us".

That is when Frostbyte could hear something, at the edge of his hearing range, which while not extremely super extraordinary, was incredibly good, able to hear more then most. It was not even an intended effect. They were trying to give him sonic powers through his ears, but only gave him a boost to hearing range and a number of frequencies larger then most can hear. Nothing close to his Ice powers, but enough to know trouble was coming.

"Shit, I forgot about the guard patrol's need to report in! Lets run right now, and get out of here. If we keep going in one direction, we have to find exit eventually!" Frostbyte mentioned.

Blade was nervous about being picked up. He didn't like to be carried, especially since the demons would throw him about, and do more harm then good when he would need to be carried. He didn't weigh much, only about 100 to a 105 pounds. He carefully wrapped his wings around Talon, being careful not to accidentally cut her with the feathers. He knew it was going to be a challenge to get out, and them escaping was his fault. Blade felt that if anything were to happen to any of them while escaping, it would be all his fault, and he knew that was true as well.

"Try the court yard. Manna should be in the court yard. They have been pushing him harder lately." Blade said. He was more worried about the hybrids then the guards. Compared to the six of them, the guards were pansies, and not really effective. After a few minutes, Blade climbed out of Talon's arms, being careful not to put too much weight on his ankle. It wasn't broken, he knew that for sure, it was probably just a bad sprain. He used the wall to help him move, just in case he stumbled.

Just as he turned the corner, leading straight to an exit, he stopped, seeing three guards standing at the exit, with their weapons ready. "Shit! Guards!, get behind me!" Blade shouted, just before the guards started firing. Blade was quick enough to get his wings folded around him, but barely in time. The bullets ricocheted off of his wings, hitting the walls and lights, and every now and then back towards the guards. He slowly moved forward, he was more of an up close and personal type of fighter, distance was not his thing. Once he got close enough, he threw his wings opening, knocking the guards off balance. He grabbed one and started kicking and punching the man, at the same type the guard started fighting with him. Blade was having a little bit of trouble, since he wasn't able to move like usual because of his ankle, but he was still holding his own in the fight.

Talon adjusted Blade in her arms for a moment. His wings wrapped carefully around her and she couldn't help but grin at him. It was probably excitment and adrenaline that kept her from shaking in fear. That and she didn't want to appear weak in front of the others.

While running to the courtyard Talon kept her grip tight. They couldn't leave anyone behind but getting to Manna proved to be a bit difficult. Despite her protests Blade had climbed from her arms. They found an exit but it was blocked with heavily armed guards. Talon hissed and dropped to the ground, pulling Aria next to her. They hid behind Blades wings, herself moving forward as he did.

The guard all went down thanks to Blade and he began to beat on one. Another struggled to his feet and pointed a gun at his back. His finger had barely touched the trigger before Talon was there. She took to the air, using her wings to go up higher and kicked out with her feet. Her talons scratched one in the chest and he stumbled back.

Moving to help Blade she threw back her head to look at the others. 'Help! I smell more coming!'

Aria jumped in surprise when someone grabbed her shoulder, and whipped around to look at Eclipse questioningly. She shifted guiltily in place at the mention of Manna... she'd forgotten all about him in her haste to get the heck out.

Frostbyte's mention of guards only added more urgency to the situation, but rather than fleeing in a blind panic, she found herself turning to follow Eclipse and the others. They were calm, so she would be too. They were working together, so she would too.

She skidded to a stop as they nearly ran into the guards, and staggered as Talon pulled her behind cover. She winced at the sound of bullets ricocheting off Blade’s wings. As Blade went forward and Talon went up, she broke into a fast sprint towards Talon’s guard.

She cocked her fist back while the guard was distracted with Talon and punched him in the face with all her unnatural strength. There was a surprisingly loud crack of bone; the guard shrieked in pain through a broken jaw.

Aria shook her hand as pain from the impact flared up–the guards in the School were seriously tough- and punched him again, this time in the temple. The stunned guard collapsed to the floor and she kicked him hard in the ribs, her face contorted unnaturally in rage.

She would’ve continued punching him, and would’ve forgotten all about escape, had Talon not mentioned more guards. She rubbed her bruised and cut knuckles and stepped back from the guard, breathing hard, more from anger and fear than exertion.

Let’s make a run for the courtyard and hope it doesn’t have a ceiling, She suggested, looking briefly at the others to see if they objected to this. Her face was paler than normal; the unhealthy pallor of fear. Her thought-words were tinged yellow with fear as well.

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?

Blade continued to fight the guard. The guard had pulled out a kbar and began swinging it. Blade smirked and knew it was time to pull his knives out. Quickly unsheathing his blades, the winged lad began blocking the knife attacks from the guard, using his wings as a shield. He was still unstable with the way his ankle was and the guard saw that. The guard quickly swung the knife and immediately went for his ankle with a quick stomp. Blade felt the blow and fell to the ground. He swung his sharp blade faster then he normally did, slicing clean through the guard's armor, causing a deep gash in the man's chest. Blade hit the ground on his right arm, and felt the pain shoot right through it. He slowly stood back up, resheathing his blades.

Blade hoped over to the door, wrapping his wings around him, and pushed it open. He had no idea what to expect, but if there was more shooting, he wanted to make sure that he and the others were covered. He quietly looked around and then to the others. "We're good, no one in sight. If i was them, i'd be on the roof, and in the towers, setting up a trap and ready for us. But again, i don't see anyone. Blade said to the others. They needed to clear a path for Manna to catch up with them, and couldn't get too far. It was all of them, or none of them. He didn't like the fact that he was relaying on others to assist him, he really didn't trust them, he didn't trust anyone.

~~~Closed~~~