The Angel Experiment: Rusty

3

Adrenaline rushed through my veins as I threw myself at a tallish Eraser, punching it right in the eye.

Howling in pain the Eraser swung at me. I dodged, but it still caught me on my jaw. "That hurt!" I shouted, kicking the Eraser in the gut, giving its head a powerful left uppercut as it keeled over.

After that everything became a blur, all I can remember is punching and kicking as many Erasers as I could.

No goal, no plan, just me kicking a lot of Eraser butts.

I stopped though, when I saw Gazzy knocked out cold.

Max and I dove forward to help him when an Eraser grabbed Max, then another joined in while they pinned her arms behind her back. A third Eraser then appeared, leaning forward it punched Max hard in the stomach.

Gasping, Max collapsed onto the ground.

I knew I should help her, but if I were in Max's shoes, I'd want her to help Gazzy instead of me.

So that's what I did.

Somewhere in the background I heard Angel screaming, and Nudge crying. Making sure Gazzy was okay I stood up, time seemed to slow momentarily as I clenched my fists, speeding up only when I turned around, throwing myself into the fight once again.

Noticing an Eraser about to clobber Iggy from behind I ran to my best friend's aid, "Go back to hell you rotten fleabag!" I yelled, leaping onto its back I grabbed hold of its ears, holding on for dear life as it tried throwing me off.

"A little help would be nice!" I screamed over the Eraser's roars of agony.

Just then I saw Iggy drop down, shooting his leg out to trip the Eraser. The Eraser fell down like a tree, taking me down with it.

Jumping to my feet I glared at Iggy angrily, "Was that really necessary?" I yelled angrily.

Hearing my voice Iggy turned to face me, "What, no "Thank you, Iggy for saving me"?" he smirked, sporting what I wished was a well-earned black eye and split lip.

"I'm not some damsel-in-distress you can save whenever you feel like it!" I shouted, "You know I hate being rescued!"

"You're the one who asked for -"

Wham!

An Eraser hit Iggy from behind, knocking him unconscious. "Iggy!" I cried, dropping down on my knees next to him.

Suddenly Max leapt over us, charging at two Erasers who'd snatched up Angel. But she didn't make it very far before two more Erasers fell purposely on her, pinning her to the ground.

I could only watch in horror as the Erasers beat up Max, one of them even gripped her face so hard their talon-like claws dug into her cheeks, making her bleed.

I barely noticed the Erasers shove Angel into a rough sack, my eyes instead stayed glued to a particular Eraser as it leaned over Max, sneering triumphantly.

The Eraser looked similar to the other ones, but it was his memories that made me freeze. Peering into his memories I saw flashes and blurs of a little boy following a group of older kids, kids that looked identical to Max and the others back when we were all still The School's guinea pigs.

I could sense the little boy's admiration and joy quickly turn into a burning hatred towards the Flock as they walked away, never once looking back at the boy.

I knew this Eraser. I'd dreamed of saving him since the day I found out he'd been left behind, four years ago.

Ice cold dread rushed down my back like a waterfall, tears pricked my now wide eyes as the Eraser spoke.

"Max." he said sweetly, yet venomously. Max looked up at him with wide eyes, she had that look on her face, like she too was trying to see how she knew him.

"Good to see you again," he went on conversationally. "You look like crap. You always acted so much better than everyone else, so this cheers me up."

"Who are you?" Max gasped.

The Eraser grinned maliciously, "You don't recognize me? I guess I've grown some."

Max's eyes widened with horrified recognition. The tears I'd been holding in until now were cascading down my cheeks by the dozen.

"Ari," I whispered.