Episode 5

7

We hovered in a place for several minutes, waiting to see if there would be a second attack. For the moment, we seemed in the clear, and I took the time to catalogue our injuries. Fang was flying awkwardly, his arm pressed against his side.

"I'm fine," he said curtly, noticing me watching him.

"Angel? Gazzy? Nudge? Report," I said.

"Legs hurt but I'm okay." Said the Gasman.

"Im fine," said Angel. "And so are Total and Celeste."

Celeste was the small angel-dressed stuffed bear Angel had - well, let's say - been given at a toy store in New York.

"I'm okay," said Nudge, but she sounded whipped.

" My nose," said Iggy, pressing it hard to stop the bleeding. "But no biggie."

"Okay then," I said. "Were almost to DC , and it should be easy to get lost in another big city. We good to go?"

Everyone nodded and we swung in tight, graceful arc to return to our flight spot.

"So..... what's with the flying Erasers?" Iggy asked a few minutes later.

"Im guessing a new prototype," I said. " But, man, they're failures. They were having a hard time flying and fighting at the same time."

"Like they'd just learned to fly, you know?" said Nudge. " I mean compared to hawks, we look clumsy. But compared to thode Erasers, were like, poetry in motion."

I smiled at Nudge's description, silently checking out my own aches and pains.

"They were bad flyers," Angel chimed in. "And in there minds they're weren't all Kill the Mutants, like the usually are. They were like Remember to flap!"

I laughed at her imitation to a deep, growly Eraser's voice. "Did you pick up in anything else Angel?" I asked.

"You mean besides dead Ari showing up?" Gazzy said, sounding bummed.

"Yeah," I said, just then, I caught a warm updraft and coasted for a minute, enjoying a feeling of pure bliss.

"Well, non of then really felt familiar." Said Angel, thinking.

Having a six-year-old mind reader came in handy. Sometimes I wished Angel's mind reads were a little more specific, or that they'd come when we wanted. Then maybe she'd be able to warn us that an Eraser was about to drop in and say hi. But sometimes she just gave the willies. Angel was starting to control people with her mind - not just Erasers - and I wasn't sure when she was crossing the line in to, say, witchcraft, for instance.

A while later, I realized that Fang wasn't beside me, and I looked around to see him below, maybe twenty feet back.

He's been silent, not unusual for him, but now I could see that his flying was ragged and off-balance. His face seemed paler, and his lips were pressed tightly together.

I dropped back and swooped down next to him.

"What's going on?" I sad in my no-nonsense tone. It had never worked ln him before, but a girl had to keep trying.

"Nothing," he said. But that one word was tight and strained. Which meant that he was lying through his teeth.

"Fang-" I began, and then saw that the arm pressed against his side was dark and wet. Blood. "Your arm!"

" 'S, not my arm," he muttered. Then his eyes fluttered shut then he started to lose altitude fast.

Really fast.

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