F.E.A.R.

Rooftop Rumble

I was honestly amazed . Artemis had really just found a guy in total darkness, on the eighth floor of an old Well Fargo bank. Of course she could probably see in the dark. Maybe. I mean, hey, if you can taste the air, you can see in the dark, seriously, Snakes kickass. And as far as Snakes go, artemis was the best, that's why she had come, to help me track a scientist in New York's Brooklyn area. We received a letter from him that morning, around six, and she found him just after noon. Of course we still had to get him out. The man showed us to the stairs and we made it to the roof with the scientist Mark Wettle by the time the bloodhounds caught up with us. Artemis cursed when we heard the howls echoing from the stairwell below us and slammed the door, it locked automatically, buying us some more time. We ran to the edge of the building and eyes skimming the horizon. Our rides were late. I took the position in front of Mark, I didn't crawl through a sewer system, fumble around in the dark for two hours in a ten storey building, and break two fingernails to lose my scientist to Drake's mangy dogs.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Mark asked, as I stripped of my jacket and began to shred it into inch thick strips. "Improvising." I grunted, as a struggled tear through a stubborn seam. I loved this damn jacket and now I was about to use it as kindling. As I began laying the strips in a semi-circle around us I vaguely I heard Artemis yelling at Foxx through her hand-held radio. "Nix and I are stuck on the roof. Where are they?"

I began to focus, and I felt myself warming from the inside out, my pale skin began to shimmer, pale gold. My face felt hot and the golden strands of my bangs that I could see in the corner of my vision drifted to red. I was ready, I WOULD NOT panic. The weres rushed the door, once, twice. It buckled, it broke. Dogs and wolves spilled from the doorway. I panicked. I had two strips in each hand and I lit them up, and threw them. The fireballs caught two wolves in the face, fur ablaze, they ran blindly setting to others on fire. Regaining composure, I set fire to the rags of my jacket at feet. Wild animals like wolves have a natural fear of fire, but this would only burn until it consumed my jacket and the lighter fluid Artemis stepped forward to pour over it. And then we would have a ten storey drop behind us, and a baker's dozen of wolf changelings in front.

I felt the fire inside me well up again, but it had no outlet now, so I squashed the feeling down as the Flyers lighted in the ledge of the building. Well, two of them anyway. We ran to them, and Raven swept Artemis up in her arms, "We lost Michael." She said softly, eyes brimming with tears. Michael was our third Flyer, my ride, and my friend. I knew what lost meant. Dead. I sucked it up and thrust Mark at Jason. "Get him out of here."

"I can fly you both," Jason started, but I cut him off with a shake of my head. "No, the rules are one person per Flyer. And I refuse to lose another scientist. Go!" He nodded, grim, and the Birds took to the sky. I stood, watching the beauty of Raven's black wings against Jason's mix of brown, missing Michael's solid white ones to bring a contrast.

Feeling the misplaced anger that always comes with loss, I turned as the last of my fire was kicked aside by some rather stylish dress shoes. The pack's alpha stepped toward me, the most human of the group, And definitely a wolf by his icy eyes and fierce teeth. I shivered as he smiled, it was weird to see all those teeth crammed into a mouth. " Well, well," He said with a laugh, "The Phoenix Falcus. Drake has quite the bounty out on you. I think me and my boys will take you in." He stepped forward again, easing up on me like I was a cornered cat.

"Actually," I said. " It's 'my boys and I'."

He stopped advancing, confused, "What?

"Well, you said 'me and my boys will take you in'. It's actually' my boys and I'. You see the trick to check and see if it's right is to remove the other person. So, 'me take you in? ' I don't think so. It's definitely 'I'."

"He smiled at me, "Really?'

"For shiz."

He started in on me again, cornered cat routine. But I was anything but. I turned, and jumped off the building.

Ten stories is a long way to fall. And I felt like death had his hands all over me before I even hit the ground. I didn't feel my skull shatter, but I heard it. And then nothing. I resurrected a minute and twenty nine seconds later. I know that because the first thing I saw was Celeste standing over me with a stop-watch. "Are you serious?" I asked, finger tips probing my head. The new skin and bone there was sensitive but firm. "Sorry," She said, "But Foxx wants it recorded."

I groaned, partly because of Foxx, partly because I stuck my hand in a pool of my own blood. Celeste helped me to my feet and we bolted to the old gasoline powered surveillance van, Foxx drove. We were gone without a trace by the time the Bloodhounds and Wolves made it to the ground floor.