Swooped | ✓

Chapter 50: Dead as a Dodo

Thankfully, the large amount of polished metal in the lab meant that Geoff and I could watch our attackers's movements in the reflection cast off a storage box. Their images were warped by the dents in the box, but we could make out their weapons, their armour and their stocky builds.

The loud banging noises from their guns made me wince, plugging my ears with my ungloved fingers. Geoff and I stayed low; feathers, blood and debris flew over our heads as the men shot the room up without care, and I bit back a growl as the poor caged birds were obliterated one by one. 

"Genocidal pricks," I seethed, my wings curling around Geoff and I slightly, to shield us from flying debris and metal shards.

"They should be out of bullets soon," Geoff said, leaning in to speak over the sound of gunfire. There was a comforting sense of conviction in his voice as we glanced at each other, nodding slowly. We carefully eyed the reflections in the metal, and the moment our attackers slightly lowered their guns to reload, we leapt up with synchronous yells. 

Geoff vaulted over the flipped table, loosing a cry as he swung his nunchucks in whipping arcs through the air, merely a shadow of red with a slither of fluorescent green flashing through the room. His mark yelped in surprised as Geoff's weapon slammed into him, his body soon flying through some blown-out double doors with a well-placed roundhouse kick to the chest.

I didn't have time to watch Geoff disappear through the doors, leaping over the table towards my own opponent, who recognised that he didn't have time to reload unless he wanted to be clocked in the face or backhanded (backfeathered?) by one of my wings. He dropped the gun to the ground with a clatter, shifting his weight expertly to avoid my punch. 

The man knew what he was doing, much like the last time, and in terms of skill he was leagues ahead of me. However, I had wings, and they often had a mind of their own - with Maggie and Piper, I would make this fight a three-against-one battle.

After the man blocked my punch, chuckling with menace, he immediately lashed out to try and land a blow to my stomach. I narrowly avoided the attack by jerking back, the movement neither graceful nor practised like his own dodge, but doing the job just the same. 

As I whirled back, I spun myself, letting out a grunt as I forcefully flicked Maggie out, the large expanse of my wing blocking the man's vision with a wall of inky blackness. Piper then lashed out to help her twin, her strong bony skeleton slamming into the man's chest, startling him before her feathers flashed at his eyes. 

I then kicked him in the shin, the man grunting but not falling, instead landing a well-placed punch to the side of my bare midriff, making me curse with pain. I stumbled into a side bench with the force, using it to steady myself as the man moved to launch another attack. 

"Fuck you, dude!" I yelled out, flipping onto the table and sliding across it, sending debris flying off the sides as I slid out of the man's reach. I smoothly leapt off the table, ripping a bright red fire extinguisher off the wall and screaming a war cry that sounded a lot like "This is Sparta!" as I launched myself at my attacker again. I wielded the fire extinguisher with much less precision than Geoff and his nunchucks, but I couldn't care less about my lack of style when I heard the satisfying clunk of the metal hitting the side of the man's head, his body dropping to the floor. 

He was not unconscious, though, and I briefly wondered if he was mutated too - not with wings, but with a fucking brick skull instead. He was dazed when he pulled himself up to his knees, hand against his brick-head and eyes a little bleary as he dizzily tried to locate me.

Using his momentary shock, I pulled my wings back before beating them once, debris flying as air was pushed behind me, sending my body hurtling forwards with a velocity I couldn't have manifested using only my legs. I folded my elbow, loosing an emphatic cry when I let it collide sharply into the man's stomach when he hobbled to his feet. I felt the crunch of flesh as I rearranged the man's organs, and I would have gagged at the noise he made if I hadn't been high on adrenaline. The air was knocked out of him, and he fell back, slipping on some pigeon blood that had spilled on the floor.