YIPPIE a thing I did for class eat up children
Up in Canada, in a towering building houses a handful of fugitives.
One with wings of a falcon, sitting at the top.
One with the tail of a bull shark, climbing the stairway.
One with the wings of owl, fighting desperately,
And one with the tail of a manta ray joining them.
And one with parrot wings running.
"Ugh, it's so cold" I murmured as I wrapped my brownish-gray wings around myself, in a futile attempt to warm up.
"Hey at least you have wings to warm you up!" Celeste teased lightly as they sat beside me, shark tail swaying gently behind them "I, do not have that luxury"
"Woah, respect your elders child!"
"...Im two years older than you Breeze"
"Hmmm that's too bad for you then" I retorted, grinning wickedly
"Oh shush grandma" They sniped back
I snorted and started laughing, and Celeste held a moment of dignified silence, before cracking and giggling along
"Breeze! Celeste! God where are they" I heard a voice yelling from down the stairwell
"Up here!" I responded, muscles tensing at the panicked voice
"Oh" huff "thank" huff "god" Charlie panted as he burst through the stairwell door, obviously tired.
"What? What's wrong?" Celeste stood up hastily, tail thrashing upset.
"Cops." Charlie grimaced.
"Azura!" I gasped
"And Grey..." Charlie added, tears glistening in the corners of his eyes. "And I ran... like a coward..." I stood up and briskly walked over to him
"Yes, you did. But you also got us, the people who can fight. So let's go fight those dolt's. Can you fly down?"
"I can, but what about Celeste?" Charlie asked, ruffling his Scarlet Macaw wings, unfolding them in preparation to fly
"I can run down the stairwell, or take the elevator. Go save Azura & Grey." Celeste affirmed before taking off down the stairwell with determination. I looked at Charlie and nodded, confirming our mutual thoughts, and we ran to the railing and in a flying leap, jumped off the side of the building. The familiar feeling of air whipping through my hair and feathers as I tucked my wings for a classic Peregrine Falcom dive. One of the benefits of my bird ancestry.
The ground rushed up to meet me and I saw two of my best friends in the world, bound and being loaded into a truck, their solemn gazes meeting mine.
And my vision turned red.
As I slid out the dive, landing with a small thunk, I slashed, kicked, bit, and hit. My small pocket knife whirling like it was a second part of me, My bloody dance coming to a mighty crescendo,
But then the doors to the police car slammed,and the cruiser drove away
And five came down to three
An ear piercing scream snapped me back to this awful reality, and I turned to the fight.
5 Cops
3 Hybrids
Charlie had landed, and threw a few punches and was positioned in a fighting crouch, and at one point during my rage Celeste had burst through the front doors of the lobby, her sharpened teeth stained red, and fists curled.
"Put... Put your hands up!" An older looking officer approached nervously, taser raised "Put them up or i'll tase you!" My knuckles whitened on my small pocket knife, and I slowly raised my hands on my head. Celeste glanced at me and followed suit, and Charlie obliged with us, slowly raising his hands to his head and tucking his wings neatly behind him.
"Good." The senior officer, mistakenly, put his taser away and approached with handcuffs "See, everything will go smoother if you just comp- oof" He grunted as I brought my knee right up into his stomach. I grabbed his taser from his belt and jabbed him with it, rendering him unable to do much.
4 Cops
3 Hybrids
I spun on my heels to see Celeste hit one officer with her sturdy tail and bite another savagely in the arm. I gripped the taser in one hand and ran up to the officer that had been slapped by their tail and jabbed him with the taser, and grabbed the other on Celeste had bit and tased him as well
2 Cops
3 Hybrids
Celeste grabbed some pepper spray from another cop and ran towards the two guys Charlie was fighting, and spared one in the eyes, and she crumpled to the ground howling as Charlie gave the other a good punch in the face. I ran over and tased the last standing cop, and the one that had been pepper sprayed.
0 Cops
3 Hybrids
"Crap, you guys okay?" Celeste askes, cracking her knuckles.
"I'm alright. Well, physically. Charlie?"
"I'll be- ow- alright" He says, rolling his shoulders wincing at a forming bruise. We stood in silence for a while, just processing.
God. Grey and... Azura. Just... gone. Where? How can we get them back? Tears pooled at the corners of my eyes and I wiped them away
"What... What do we do?" Charlie sniffled out, his wings wrapped around himself, tears streaming down his cheeks "I just...Azura... Grey..."
"We have to get them back." Celeste murmured
"Well, yeah. But how?" I added
"Can we try to find the nearest police station? If the white coats haven't taken them already, that's where they would probably be." Charlie reasoned
"Hmm maybe. But how do we find the nearest station?" I wondered aloud
"Threaten it out of one of these guys? Once they can move, of course" Celeste added
"That would work. Let's separate one somewhere else and get them to talk." I said as I grabbed the arm of the closest officer, a woman with a long ponytail
"Celeste, help with the legs. Charlie, get the other arm." They both obliged and we carried her a block away, taking an ally to avoid being seen. We're lucky it was early morning and nobody saw us. We sat her against a wall, and after a minute or so, she jerked violently, and Celeste pinned her so she couldn't move
"Wh... What are you going to do to me?" She murmured fearfully
"Nothing if you tell us where you took our friends." I started interrogating
"I'll never tell you freaks" She spat, all hints of fear gone, just in time to insult us.
"Where are they." Celeste bared their sharpened teeth at her and she jumped a little.
"Are you going to hurt anyone? Once you free your "friends?""
"No! We just want to live in peace, gawhd" Charlie interjected, frustrated
"What he said." I continued "Now, this is your last chance. Where are they." I could almost see reason and fear battling in her head. She slumped against the wall and murmured
"The nearest police station. About three blocks away North. They're being put in our most secure cells till the lab comes for them. Now let me go... please..." I nodded at Celeste and they dropped her and gave her a shove outside the ally and she ran to where her comrades were.
"Let's go. This way?" Celeste growled
"Mmhm, that's North. Can you take the back alleys?"
"Yeah. You guys can go on." I nodded at Celeste and me and Charlie unfolded our wings. I scaled a ladder jutting out the side of a building and me and Charlie took flight off the fairly tall building. I spotted Celeste running below in the back alleys, mirroring us. The wind blowing with us, propelling our speed forward. We flew about three blocks in partial cloud cover, making sure Celeste was still with us before landing a few buildings down, and waiting for Celeste to get here. They arrived soon after, a little sweaty and red faced.
"Man, sometimes I wish I had wings like you guys. Less running everywhere!" I shrug and tell them the plan I had been formulating in my head.
"Alright, so Azura and Grey are in that police station, and we're on a time crunch, because the White Coats are gonna be here soon. I'm thinking we should just bam through the front, fight anyone who gets in our way, grab keys or a card or whatever to the cells, bust our friends out and get as far away as we can. Any objections?" My friends just stared at me.
"...That is a great plan! Is what I would say if that resembled anything like a plan!"
"Do you have anything better Charlie?" I retorted, and he sighed, running his fingers through his curly brown hair
"Guess not. Let's go." Our shoes pounded and echoed on the linoleum floor of the Police Station as we pushed through the doors. A receptionist sat at a small desk, and a cop was chatting with him. They turned to us, and their faces slowly morphed into surprise
"Hey, you're the other things that we were supposed to get! Put your hands on your head and lay down on the ground!" He said confidence ringing in his voice as he grabbed pepper spray from his belt.
"Hmm, no thanks!" Celeste grinned and bolted forward at an unnatural speed, and delivered a damaging right hook to his face, a small thunk ringing when he hit the ground. The receptionist started to scream before I muffled it with my hands, and Charlie, ever so gently, pinched the pressure point on his neck and lowered him below the desk. At the same time, two more officers had come through the door to investigate and Celeste had already dealt with them, and was dragging them behind the receptionist desk.
"Did any of them have any keys or something?"
"One of them did. Let's go." Celeste held up the key in their palm, before stalking further into the station, occasionally ducking into an office to avoid contact. We proceed further, passing a few more office spaces, and a break room before coming to a room clearly labeled with Cells...With a keypad lock.
We all groaned in unison.
"Okay, we can figure this out! We got this! Right...?" I nervously affirmed.
"I might be able to. Let me try a few things. Watch for danger." Charlie commanded. We obliged and watched for danger as Charlie murmured to himself, examining the keypad.
"It's a miracle nobody has seen us on the security cameras"
"Well now it's gonna happen Celeste" I teased half heartedly, preoccupied with worry. We heard a failed try buzz and a small curse from Charlie
"Keep going, you got this!" I affirmed. He hummed in acknowledgement, eyebrows wrinkled in concentration. Another fail buzz and grumble from behind us. And another.
"Come on Charlie..." I murmured, just as a happy chime sounded from the door.
"Yes!" Charlie celebrated, a wide grin split his face. "Come on, let's go!" I bolted through the door and a few cells lined the wall, thankfully with just locks this time. I scanned the room looking for our friends when I heard two familiar voices clamor over themselves shouting our names, and my head whipped towards them
"Breeze! Charlie! Celeste! Oh my god!" Azura cried
"You came!" Grey gasped
"Of course we did!" I shouted as I ran towards their cells "Celeste! Keys!" Celeste tossed the keys to me and I started trying keys on the Azura's cell
"I just... You came for us!" Grey started tearing up and Charlie wiped his tears through the cell bars with the sleeve of his dusty red sweater
"Shhh, of course we did. We'll always come for you. No matter what, okay?" Charlie promised comfortingly.
The fifth key slid into the lock and I turned, the cell door swung open. Azura stood there, shocked until I pulled them out into a crushing hug, our wings folding into a familiar wing hug. I handed the keys to Charlie with my free hand and we both stayed hugging for a few seconds before pulling away to wait for Grey to get out. Charlie finally found the right key and we all piled into a big group hug, crying a bit. We all pulled away
"You guys have no idea how happy I am to have you back, but first we have to get out of here." Celeste commanded softly. We all nodded and I grabbed Azura's soft hand, leading them out. One officer tried to stop us, but Grey just stung them with his Manta Ray tail. We left him on the floor and pushed through the front doors, breathing in the fresh air. I noticed a van labeled with the name of the company who had first created us.
"Run!" One of us shouted
And just like that we were back on the run. But at least we were back together.
