The Guy

Hah! What the…?! Where am I? I tried to get up, but the realization that I was stuck made me stop.

I was laying… face down? True. The blood spots I was staring at had definitely come from me. I tried to look around, but… ugh, these straps were on really tight…

“Don’t try it,” a new voice said. It sounded like a guy.

“Uh-huh…” I tried to twist my neck around to get a look at my captor, but the straps impeded any decent movement. Not too difficult, I decided.

“I’m serious. You won’t like what comes next.”

“Tell you what. I’ll give you one minute to release me,” I stated. “And if I escape these bonds myself, I will scissor kick your head off.”

“Heh. I’d love to see you try.”

Ugh… he was taunting me. His funeral. Just you wait, guy… in one minute, I’ll… huh, these really are well tied. Maybe I’ll need two minutes.

“Listen, Shurikit. There’s a charge running through the bonds. You’ll be paralyzed long before your two minutes are up.”

“Huh? I said one minute, moron.”

“I know what you said. And I’m saying to save yourself the trouble.”

Listening to the guy was getting boring, so I decided to try and memorize his face. If I could just… twist around a bit more…

There! He was standing a meter or two away, clicking on some kind of tablet.

His silver armor was a dead ringer – he was the one who had drugged me, for sure. Who does this lean, tall specimen think he is? You can’t just punch through nigh indestructible glass and jab me like it’s nothing, you prick! There will be blood. I’ll knock the light out of his perfect green eyes if it’s the last thing I do! Three minutes is all I’ll need…

“Oh, you think my eyes are perfect?” He grinned, running a hand through his wavy black hair. “Well, you have to admit, I am gorgeous.”

“Shut up. I didn’t – wait, what? I didn’t…! How do you know what I’m thinking?!”

“Well, I don’t like to advertise, but it’s a thing I can do,” the guy said casually.

I thought things so horrifically vile the author couldn’t bring himself to write them down; and as expected, the guy went, “Oh! Geez. You’re not into that kind of thing, are you?”

“LET ME OUT!”

“Cool your jets,” the guy sighed. “Listen, I was only commissioned to run an analysis on your wings’ capabilities. It shouldn’t be much longer, now that I have everything set up.”

“Couldn't you have asked nicely instead of sedating me? I bet you sent those drones after us, too!”

“No, the drones weren’t me. I don’t have that level of authority.”

I couldn’t remember the last time I was this angry. I wanted to just scream, smash everything, knock out anyone who came close, and fly away. But then, I couldn’t risk the paralysis in the middle of enemy territory. And even if that bit really was a bluff, I still had no knowledge of this place and its potential defenses. Maybe it would be better this time if I didn’t take the risk…

“Fine. Do your analysis, or whatever. And make it quick.”

“No guarantees there, but I’ll do my best.”

As he began whatever he was doing, he started mumbling to himself: “four wings? I’d have thought they would be more like a bird’s. No down, but somehow still airworthy? Not that I know much about aerodynamics to begin with. Bulletproof, too…” he tapped on his tablet thing a bit more.

“Are you done yet?” I asked.

“No. Actually, can I ask you a question?”

“Will you let me go if I do?”

“No! It’s… too dangerous,” the Guy said.

“I was built for danger, moron,” I retorted.

“Uhm… you know what, fair enough,” the Guy conceded, loosening my bonds. “Just answer me this, okay? What do you know about—”

“PSYCHE, SUCKER!” I immediately jumped over the siding and punched him in the face, knocking him to the floor. Then I drove an elbow into his gut to really – OW! I had bruised my arm instead of his body. I tried again with a kick, but it too was deflected by the plates on his body. This was what punched through bulletproof glass…?

“It’s called body armor,” he said, rolling to his feet.

“No way! My kicks can dent body armor. And robots! What is it really?”

“Strong body armor. Now are you leaving or not?”

I narrowed my eyes. “You aren’t going to stop me?”

“I know you only want to leave,” the guy shrugged.

“I could just as easily break everything on my way out,” I carefully said. “What’s the catch?”

“Nothing you can’t handle, right? Miss bred-for-war?”

“Shut up. You don’t get to call me that,” I snapped, “Mister… um, The Guy.”

I quickly found my way to the research facility’s exit, but the second I set foot beyond the doors, I had to drop and cover to avoid a volley of bullets. Ugh! So this is what he meant. Of course, I thought, hiding behind the threshold. Nothing I can’t handle, huh… just how much does he know about me?

I took a breath, then folded my wings around me and ran into the blast zone. The turrets opened fire again, but they all ricocheted off of my tough scales.

Soon I was out of range and out of sight, soaring into the wild blue yonder. Ahh, yes, the sky and I were good pals indeed.

It feels especially nice right after a life-threatening experience: just me, the clouds, and a few birds milling about. One of them glided over to me to check me out, then screeched at me and left to rejoin its pals.

Speaking of, I have to find out where MY pals are, I thought. The Guy was not around to comment on my thoughts this time, which was a relief. I still had no idea how he could do it. It was kind of freaky.

As I coasted on a slow updraft, I heard a telltale screeching sound. It was faint, but I knew it was there. I’d recognize the aeronauts’ signals anywhere!

I quickly dove down in their general direction. Sure enough, I saw them resting on a foothill.

"Where were you?" Blake asked as we reunited.

"Some place I didn't recognize," I replied. "With some guy I hate. Maybe we can go back and raid it later.”

“We've been out all day looking for you,” Bernicia yawned. “Oogh, I’m beat.”

“Huh… it is pretty late,” I noted. I had escaped from that place pretty quickly; now that I thought about it. How long had I been out, exactly? And why did that guy let me out so readily? A lot of things weren’t adding up.

“Ready to head back to base?” Blake extended his wings.

“I guess,” I sighed. I could figure this out later.

“Hey-ohh,” Blake called as we burst into our safe house. “Joseph, you home? We’re back!”

“Just a moment, children,” Joseph said, walking towards his office. “Something just came up.”

Blake scratched his head. “Something important? Can we help?”

He adjusted his glasses, then shook his head. “Not this time, I’m afraid. Please, don’t worry about it.”

The four of us shared a doubtful look. But we knew – whenever Joseph got like this, it was never worth pressing the issue.

I decided to clean myself up in the washroom. There was some glass cuts on my face and a pierce mark on my neck, but not much else this time. Usually after some of my more difficult trials, my face would be barely recognizable through the wounds and bruises. But no matter what, they’d always see our glowing red eyes – the mark of an aeronaut, Joseph had said once. It was weird because we also had wings, but I didn't really care enough to question it.

After deeming myself ‘passable’ in the mirror – and adjusting my blonde twintails – I headed to the front where my other pals were sitting.

“Hey, guys. Wanna raid that place now?” I asked.

“Nothing better to do,” Travis shrugged.

“All in favor?” Blake rose his hand.

“We’ll be there and back before he notices we even left,” Bernicia snickered.

"Very well." I pointed northward. "The building was that way. Follow me!"

When we smashed through the window by the door, we skidded to a stop right in front of the Guy.

“Well, what have we here,” Bernicia said.

“Nice of you to make this easy for us,” I grinned. “I hope you’ll put up a fight.”

“I’m flattered,” the Guy replied, “but I actually have a request to make of you guys.”

Bernicia’s unibrow scrunched up. “Request? You screwing with us?”

“No, I promise it’ll be worth your time. It’s like a trial of sorts.”

“How about we just beat you up instead?” Travis cracked his fists.

“Always violence with you guys.” the Guy crossed his arms. “Would it hurt to at least pretend you’re human?”

“You think you can just say whatever you want, huh,” I scoffed. “So what are we, then? Clones? Robots?”

“Flying werewolves,” Blake dryly suggested.

“I guess this means you’re done talking? Well, don’t forget – I tried to be civil first.” The Guy rose a hand, and suddenly the room filled with robots, all of them pointing guns at us. Even for four aeronauts, I suspected we wouldn’t make it out before getting run down…

“SCRAMBLE,” I shouted. The others quickly jumped into action—

Wham! What the–? These things were no tougher than the training models we fought all the time! So much for being intimidating, Guy.

“Perhaps it’s easy for you,” the Guy said, “but what of Joseph Adams?”

We all stopped short as more robots surrounded us.

“How do you know his last name?!” I pointed an accusing finger at him. “He never told us his last name!”

The Guy blinked. “Ahem! This just goes to show how much I know… and how much you don’t know. But that shouldn’t surprise me – you are but soldiers, after all. Anyway, make your choice.”

“Um, hey,” Blake muttered. “Isn’t this bad? You know Joseph is super frail. He’d probably lose against just one of these things.”

“Grr… you think this’ll be a difficult decision to make, GUY?” I snapped a hand backwards. “I can take you on myself! The rest of you, Joseph protection detail.”

“You sure?” Bernicia scoped out the enemy. “Never mind, you’ve got this. We’ll come back for you in a bit.”

“Heh. This’ll be the last time you underestimate me,” I sneered.

“I do hope that confidence isn’t misplaced,” the Guy replied. “ATTACK!”