Mercenary With A Mouth

MEETING THE FLOCK

PERCY POV

. . . up . . .

. . . ake up . . .

"Wake up, boy!"

I jolted awake and instantly regretted my sudden movements. I groaned and fell back gasping. I noticed the person next to me smirk. I glared at him trying to remember what the Hades happened . . . .

Oh. Right. "DNA infusion. No wonder I was sore.

Wait. I was awake. That meant I was still alive! They hadn't killed me . . . yet.

"Don't worry, Dearest." Cassandra. Great. Well, this day just keep's getting better and better! She continued, "The process went flawlessly. I just wanted to make sure you would wake!"
Yeah, that makes me feel better, thanks. At least I woke up, that had to count for something.

"But you won't heal correctly if you stay awake so there is no avoiding this."

Avoiding what?

A prick touched my neck and I thought oh . . . that before I let the darkness sweep across my mind and I embraced it gratefully.

Linebreak

MAX POV

I jerked awake when the door of our cage opened. I blinked the rest of the sleep from my eyes and watched the whitecoat slam the door shut before leaving. Angel rubbed her eyes with her fists and the gesture was so childish it made me smile.

Turning, I found Fang watching me and nearly jumped out of my skin. Seriously, bro, your eyes scare me sometimes. I swear he looks right into my soul. I averted my eyes and scanned to make sure all six of my flock - wait, six?

There was an extra today. The kid from the cage across from us had decided to join us. Well, he probably hadn't decided. He lay on his side, facing the bars. Nudge scooted closer to him, excitement playing in her brown eyes. She reached out to touch the back of his neck, but she quickly retracted them when they touched.

"He's real!" She squealed.

"And you thought he wouldn't be?" Iggy squinted.

She didn't even look embarrassed. "Well, yeah."

I came up next to her and winced as I saw the scars that ran across the kid's neck. I lightly placed my hand on his shoulder. No wings. Then what was he doing here? I felt between his shoulders. Oh! Two small lumps but they were hot why were they hot? .

The whitecoats didn't graft in a pair of grown wings like they sometimes tried to do to Erasers. (I actually felt sort of bad for those Erasers. The wings never held and the wolf-creatures always died.) No, this time they were actually growing the wings.

I nodded. It was better this way. His human muscles could rearrange as needed if the wings developed from the body instead of forced in there.
The kid groaned and shifted to his stomach, his hand meeting the floor so he just sort of held himself there, breathing heavy. He put his other hand under him as well and pushed himself up.

His black hair fell into his eyes but I could tell they were shut tight back

My flock was watching with interest. The not-yet-a-bird kid stole a glance at us and I saw a flash of green before his head fell back down.

"He's awake"

"Really?!" Angel gasped and jumped up, running to the poor boy in front of me. The white-winged girl carelessly shoved her hands between his shoulder blades, causing him to cry out and flinch away. Angel leapt back.

"Angel!" I scolded. I pulled her away and made her sit. To the others I said,

"Don't touch him." Who knew what was wrong with him.

"He's not defected, Max." Blue eyes peered into my own brown ones.

"He's in pain and confused, that's it."
Still . . . . I motioned for the others not to move then made my way to the boy's side.

Light touch, Max , Angel pushed into my head. Little hypocrite. Who was it that just freaked him out, huh? It sure wasn't me. He was still hunched over but as I neared he straightened out and eyed me. I froze.

It was that kid from the arena! The one who beat me, I added with loathing. But one look at the boy's pained face and I couldn't stay mad.

"Hey." I took another step forward. He sat back, narrowing his eyes at me. I thought he was going to blow me off, but then he whispered "Hey" back. I cocked my head at him. He winced.

"What are you doing here?" Geez, Max, way to make him feel welcome. I really didn't mean for that to come out. His eyebrows knit and he looked down. His shrug was a small one.

"What's your name ?" Nudge bounded over, grinning. He opened his mouth, then faltered and shut it quickly. Trust issues, I knew how he felt. I could live with that. So I flipped through options and voiced one.

"You're Subject 3, correct?" He nodded. "3 it is then."

"Mmm-hmm." Nudge giggled. Six's lips moved and I had to lean closer to understand. Poor kid didn't have a voice. He gave me a weird look when I did and I sat back. I could have sworn he was talking.

"So, 3. . . ." I had no idea what I was supposed to say to him. He looked up. I noticed the scars spiraling his arms. He coughed.

"Yeah, this is awkward, right?"

I laughed. "Yeah."

Maybe this kid isn't that bad. I will give him a chance.

PERCY POV
We made a deal. They don't push me for information, I don't push them. It was working so far. The only things I'd learned were the things they accidently let slip.

Like, Angel was a mind reader, which didn't surprise me much. (Nothing really startled me anymore.)

And Iggy was blind.

And that Fang totally needed an attitude change.

Other than Fang, they were a great group. I thought Max was going to punch me at first the way she kept glaring at me but I guess she got over it.

I made sure not to let anything slip. I was determined to be quiet and mysterious for as long as I can help it, and with that I went to sleep. As I was falling asleep, I felt cold feeling washing over my head.

"Get out of my head" I snarled at angel

"Ange, stay out of Six's mind." Max called from across the cage.

I tried to go back to sleep but the fear of Angel prodding my mind combined with my ADHD made it nigh impossible, so I was drumming I fingers on the ground, my fingers faltered and I looked up, sensing someone's eyes on me.
Max was watching me but as soon as she realized she was caught she turned back to Nudge.

I sigh "why is my life so hard I thought", before I forced my self to sleep.