Book 1, Missing Angel; Part 4

“Alright, to the trees.” Max said, before guiding her flock northwards. After a few minus, they landed in a nice tall maple tree.

Digi was panting, exhausted. His back had begun to ache. He rolled his shoulders, knowing he was going to be extremely sore tomorrow.

“That could have gone worse, I think. At least we got to eat.” Iggy said, earning some murmurs of agreement.

Fang dusted glass from his shoulders, and noticed Digi had a shard stuck in his wing. Carefully, he pulled it free. He noticed that his secondary and inside feathers were a stark white compared to the rest of his wings. He couldn't help but admire them. He himself had hawk wings, he knew. Most of the flock had a sort of bird they were modeled after. Max was definitely an eagle, Angel a dove, so on, so forth. He wondered what bird Digi was, to give him unique wings like this.

“He’s a condor, I think.” Angel said, making him flush. “That explains his red eyes too.”

“What do you mean Angel?” Nudge tilted her head, confused.

“Fang was thinking about Digi’s wings and wondering what kind of bird he was.”

“...I was curious.”

Angel looked between the two, and then a wry, smug smile spread across her face. “Uh huh. Sure.”

“...So people were taking pictures.” Iggy spoke up, looking kinda bummed out they hadn’t gotten dessert.

“Yeah,” Max looked equally miserable. “As a disaster, this is pretty high up I think.”

“You could say that again.” Gazzy said. “At least the food was good.” He shrugged.

“Way better than those food bars the school gave me.” Digi admitted. “I hope all outside world food tastes that good.”

“Yeah, but get ready to get interrupted every time. If it’s not cops, it’s Erasers.” Nudge sighed. “That will probably be the last time we have a good meal like that and be able to enjoy it in full. Or maybe, we get super lucky and find a place to settle down or—“

“Nudge, ears, please.” Iggy said with a sigh.

“It could always be way worse.”

“Oh, it is getting worse.”

Max nearly jumped a foot in the air, and it was then that they noticed that they were surrounded by Erasers. “You keep showing up like a bad penny.”

“I could say the same thing about you.” Said the main Eraser, who stepped forwards. Digi thought that the rest of the flock knew who this one was. That was confirmed when Max started having a talk with him. Apparently this guy was Jeb’s son, who was only nine.

He was on instant alert, feeling his heart beating faster in his chest. His fingers start doing that itching thing again, and he starts planning an exit route.

“I’m tracking you ‘cus it’s my job. All that backstory stuff is helping me enjoy it.” Ari began to change, body shifting and morphing into a proper wolf man. He then pulled out a bear with little white wings and—

“Celeste!” Angel shouted, teeth bared. She began to scramble down.

“Angel, no!”

“Stay put!

But she jumped anyway, landing just a few feet away from Ari. Max followed her, standing in front of her adoptive daughter.

The Eraser’s surged forward, but Ari held them back with a single clawed hand. Their eyes are all locked on Angel and Max.

Ari shook Celeste, and Angel stepped forwards. Max stopped her. “Touch her, and I’ll kill you.”

“Give me the bear.”

Ari laughed, noticing how similar they were at that moment.

“Give. Me. The. Bear.” Angel repeated, eyes hollow, voice low and hypnotic. She stared deeply into Ari’s eyes. He looked confused, smile fading as he stared. His grip on the bear wavered.

“Drop the bear. Now.”

And just like that, Celeste hit the ground. Angel sped forwards grabbing her toy and with a quickness, she leaped back into the safety of the trees.

“You have your orders!” he barked at the team. “Don’t ever question them!” He turned back to look at me thoughtfully. “You can’t question them,” he said in a normal tone, speaking directly to me. “Even if they seem stupid. Even if you’d rather just rip the flock apart.”

The Eraser’s made a hungry sound, one licking their chops.

Ari leaned closer to Max then, whispering to her. They seemed to have a battle of wills, until he leaned back barking orders at his team. They all then disappeared into the night.

“I heard them mentioning the director at the School, who is it?” Nudge asked after working up the courage.

“Some big big bad guy.” Max said, eyes still narrow, hands still clenched into fists.

“You alright?” Iggy said, gripping his branch in a white knuckle grip.

“Fantastic, but we gotta move. Now.”

Digi followed the flock, wings still sore, but followed the flock to the top floor of a ninety something story of an unfinished apartment building on the Upper East Side. The very top was just an empty shell with only drywall, and insulation.

“I’m tired, can we go to bed?”

“Yeah, let’s try and get some sleep.” Max said with a weak smile. She held out her left fist, and everyone stacked their fists together.

“Come on. You too,” Iggy said. “You’re one of us now.”

Digi’s face felt hot, and he added his left hand to the pile.

The flock tapped fists. They all quickly cleared up the debris. Digi found himself sleeping near Fang, because again, designated guard in case he turns out evil. He covered himself with his oversized wings, he’s done this since he was just a little fledgling of a creature. Far better than a blanket in his opinion.

When he awoke, it was to Fang shaking him gently. “C’mon, let’s get some breakfast, you’re coming with me.”

Digi slips his jacket on, and follows Fang and Iggy outside. The rest of the flock was still asleep. They covered their faces with their hoods, heading to a little cafe, getting two dozen muffins. He also got a little coffee.

They left quickly. He noticed Fang grabbing some newspapers on the way back to their temporary shelter.

“Look.” He held them out.

“Is that…?”

“Yeah, it is. That’s pretty bad.” Digi frowned, seeing blurry pictures of them, wings spread, plastered all over the news.

“Let’s go before the sun fully shines.” Fang says, and they hurry back. When they returned, Max was just waking up.

"What's goin’ on?” She rubbed her eyes as she was handed a muffin.

“We got breakfast, and these while you and the kids were asleep,” Fang held up the newspapers he got. “We should lie extra low for a while, especially since some of these are pretty good. They have our outfits and some of our faces.”

“Maybe we wear disguises?” Gazzy suggested.

Angel nodded along. “Yeah, like glasses and funny noses!”

Max smiled. “That is actually a pretty good idea.” She led them out to go eat once more, and stuffing Digi’s duffle bag full of emergency rations. “I think we should leave the city as soon as it gets dark. Somewhere upstate, by the ocean maybe…”

“You!”

She fumbled, clearly surprised as she dropped her soda, as a guy with a mohawk jumped in front of them. “You guys are perfect!” He said, eyeing their plain clothes and faces.

“Perfect for what?” Fang said, very very slowly.

The guy grinned, waving a heavily tattooed arm at a store front. ‘U ‘Do: Tomorrow’s styles today’. “We’re having a makeover fest. You guys can have a total makeover for free, so long as your stylist gets to experiment on you and do whatever they want.”

“Like what?” Nudge asked, eyes going wide with interest.

“Makeup, hairstyles, everything! Except for tattoos, we’d need parental consent.”

“I wanna do it! It sounds so fun! Can we do it, Max? I want a makeover!”

Max buffered for a moment, observing the teens walking out, looking wild, free, and unidentifiable. She then grinned widely. “I’m up for it. We’d all love to be made over, make us look completely different.”

A few hours later, the flock was standing in a thrift store. Digi had chosen to keep his clothes, despite how they made him look like a hooker, but had gotten a nice pair of black boots. His hair, once in a slicked back ponytail, his hair coiling into a puffball behind his head, had been washed and turned into shoulder length twists, the tips bleached and dyed red to match his eyes. His stylist said he had awesome contacts. He walked around in his boots, and decided they were infinitely better than the cheap sneakers he’d been giving.

Fang had his long hair cut, but left his bangs. It resembled that of a hawk, its plumage to be more exact. It looked good. He was wearing a black long sleeve with a pair of black skinny jeans, and Digi noticed they were wearing matching boots.

He said nothing, but it was a nice thought. Everyone else was drastically different too.

Nudge's curls had been blowdried and straightened, and streaked with blond highlights in the front, she was wearing bellbottoms, wearing a layered tshirt,the first a soft pink color, the second, the long sleeve underneath was white.

Max was wearing a jeanjacket, with a simple camo shirt underneath, and a simple pair of acid wash jeans. Her long braid had been cut, letting her hair now rest just below her shoulders instead of all the way down her back.

Gazzy now had spiky hair, with the tips blue, the sides shaved short. He was dressed similarly to Angel, in a t-shirt and cargo pants.

Angel herself had actually opted out for the makeover. She liked her hair the way it was.

Iggy had gone for a similar style to Gazzy, strawberry blonde hair spiked up and tipped with black. He’d also gotten his ear pierced before Max had noticed, and a nice little gold hoop now hung on his left ear.

After the gang had completely changed their looks, they were flying again.