ANON ALLOY; PROJECT ABSTRACT.

These kids don't have to care about distance or boundaries.

Danger comes in my forms. Just like them.

The angels once landed, the angels I once found,

Beings who could ascend above with soft feathered sound

Never, like me, to be trapped upon this human ground.

I always knew I'd release their hands,

Let them take wing as their birthright demands,

With a bitter tear, watch their departure from these lands.

Be free like the birds that rule the sky,

Leave me behind and soar up high.

Fly my angel children, fly.

With eyes gazing down far below,

Never would my angel children know,

Would it be safe to ever come home.

"Fly my angel children, fly."

H

i; you in the front who picked up this jumble of words and just started reading. Hi. Just the fact that you're reading this means that you, yes you, have made it another step towards living to a decent old age and living your dreams. I'm going to ask you to do one thing. Don't, repeat: DON'T, put this book down. Seriously, no joke, as far from LOL as physically possible, I'm not pulling your leg or any other limb you may possess. Human or non-human.

In these pages is my story. My family's and my story, a story that could have been yours with no effort in the slightest. We may not be that different, you and I.

Now, right, I've never done this before and you've probably never had to do this either. I'm gonna tell you everything. Just try and keep up. I hope you like rapid pace. Please, just don't stop reading, that's all I ask. Someone has to know… and it's fallen down to you. Hard world isn't it? You have no idea.

I'm Anon. Hi. I'm fourteen, and my family consists of five people (including yours truly) who are not related to me in the slightest, probably the only blood bond is back in Eden or whatever you believe in. There used to be six of us, but that was a long time ago. Now there of five of us, a totally unrelated family. But they're my family, and I will always be by their sides.

Now I can have a little boast; I'll bet you're good at art or sport or drama or make-up or cards or whatever but I can tell you, my family and I are beyond amazing. We're nothing you've ever experienced. Building block number 1, we're pretty nice, smart, normal kids. Building block number 2. There are five us; Me (Anon, remember?), Sirius, Nyx, Leonidas and Artemis. Block number 3. We were made and designed on purpose by scientists in labs. We were one big experiment, a big test. In the end when they'd finished with us we were part human and part something else; animal. Crash. There goes the tower we were building with the blocks. Not so normal now.

We were "raised" in a lab/prison/cage/hell. It's quite amazing we've got such a variety of personalities and senses of humour in our family with so much stuff messing us up. But you'd be surprised what we can do. More than you can, believe it.

Very few of us made it past infancy in the lab - the experiments killing children left right and centre. Not nice. From what I heard only one in ten of us survived, even then we're not exactly immortal. There's a whole host of other part animal mutants that we call the "Puppets" 'cause they're dull and emotionless, most of whom are loyal to the scientists we refer to as the "Puppeteers", pulling our strings, controlling our lives. Puppets are like us, kind of like a were-something; were-wolf, were-cat, were-owl, were-ladybird, whatever. Use your imagination. But there's not just wolves policing us, the nice kids. Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, all of 'em. The whole shebang. And they all like to hunt the nice kids. Us. The moving targets with that invisible "rip-my-head-off" sign on our backs and stamped on our foreheads. What's more, they wanna make sure we never get discovered by the outside world. You. Come to think of it, people like you lock people like us up and experiment on us.

I guess you really are my last hope to get my story known. Or maybe I've finally lost it. My very last marble just went flying off into oblivion and I'm now out of screws and the like to be loose. Oh well. I've been crazy for the past fourteen years.

But I ain't giving the whole plot away just yet. I love stories, don't you? I'm gonna tell you one. A very important one. Mine. Ours. My family's.

I want you to think. This story could be about you - your children maybe. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow. The tomorrow after that, there are a lot of those. So please, please, PLEASE, take this seriously. My butt is on the line doing this, so you can know. You. Feel special. Go on. Your little special happy time. 'Cause as soon as you read further, my family and I are the special ones. You need to know.

Keep reading. If someone tries to stop you… I dunno… use your imagination. James Bond leap out the window and run to a quieter place. Swim the nearest river and sit out of reach on the other side. Parachute using a bed sheet out of your top floor window and land in a totally isolated place.

Me, Anon. My family, Sirius, Nyx, Leonidas and Artemis.

Welcome to the nightmare you can't wake up from. You have to make it end yourself.

I came into the world some time in June 1993. From that day, I was destined to lead an untold life. Until now.

Some of my earliest memories of life are being totally alone. Then one miraculous day, I met someone who was ‘like me’. Sirius was a little older than me, but in a life like mine I knew, even at my delicate young age, that I had made a friend that would last forever. We became inseparable, never one without the other.

My caring mentor, a scientist called Prof Logan Wolfgang, took note of this and had us placed in the same facility together. Soon after that we met fourteen year old Nyx, a titan in the deepest circle of hell with a secret like no other. Hell being the lab known as the Stronghold and the secret being one only time can reveal. I can remember gazing up at Nyx, only level with his hip at the time, and he said to me six words that will stay forever with me.

"Don‘t be afraid of me. Please."

Those words stuck with me forever. Even a giant like Nyx had emotions. An experiment. A prisoner like us.

Soon after that we met Cerberus. Wolfgang told us that he was Sirius’s younger brother by two and a half years and it showed. They really were family, a real blood bond, but we had already decided what we were. No group ups, no parents, no teachers. Just the Clan.

As time passed we welcomed Leonidas into our Clan, then finally Artemis was trust into my open arms as an infant, and our Clan was whole.

We grew up behind those pristine white walls, submitting to torture for the sake of science and saw things no children should ever have to see. No human being.

We grew strong in the years to come, but we grew brave, smart and daring too. We started to outgrow expectations, and passed our acting dumb we were scheming, taking in every route in and out, every window, every staircase to every floor. We were planning and calculating how to use every cell of our being to escape that place.

We knew if we had the chance, we would take it. Even though we knew that if we were caught, we would face a fate worse than any death you can possibly imagine.

It would take fourteen years before I actually snapped. Cracked, and broke the mould with such force that I would find it in my being to break into the light of the real world.

F

acing death always brings out another side of you. My revealed side is uber-insulting-bad-mouth-super-heavy-weight-pro. My bare feet are hitting the snow covered ground at a zillion frickin' miles per hour and my brain is like a broken record.

"Run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run! Keep running damnit Anon!" my conscience is yelling.

I see a corner and I skid to a half-halt and a left, one liquid movement curving around the sharp bend. I continued gulping down deep lung-fulls of icy cold air, while I'm running because there's no way in this universe I'm going to stop for anything. I'm like an arrow racing towards a target with nothing in the world able to stop me. My target is one thing: escape.

One problem. I have no idea where I'm going. I've never been outside before. I've never felt snow before. I've never ran cross country like this. I've never been this far away from the pristine white walls of the lab.

My arms have been scratched up and are bleeding plaits of blood because of the razor wire I cleared not too long ago. Oh well.

My bare feet are probably bleeding with all the tough terrain I've been clearing, rock, branches, thorns, bracken and man-made traps. Yeah, ok.

My brain fizzing with adrenaline and my blood burning as the desperate air from my lungs floods into them? I'll survive.

Never again will I let them hurt me. Run me ragged on treadmills. Pierce my skin with injections. Make me swallow chemicals and tiny cameras that made me sick, hallucinate and numb. Never, never again.

I don't give a monkey's how much I hurt, I just want to put as much distance between me and the Puppets as I possibly can. Puppets - that's what me and my family call the mutants loyal to the Puppeteers. I know from coming face to face with two of them - reeking breath and yellow carnivore's teeth up in my face - that one of them is a wolf-mutant and the other is a hyena. Not a pretty sight. Puppets aren't a single race of mutants, they're anything that decided to have a slice of the fun of torturing other mutants and making us hurt - inside and out. Not any more mingers. Even if you are chasing me, armed, bloodthirsty and with an urge to rip my throat out. Or worse, force me to go back to a lab, the most vicious and high security of them all, the Stronghold. Where my family and I just escaped form to be precise. They're not having us back. None of us. I won't let them. And as the female in the shared leadership of our family, I have to be strong, quick thinking and brave. Heh heh. I'm so modest, but I'm so worth it. Wink.

"Come on, Anon! You can outrun these dumb-bells! No one but Sirius can outrun you!"

Don't worry, Sirius is on my side. The Group's joint leader with yours truly, a Grafted wolf-mutant like the one behind me. But a special Grafted wolf-mutant, someone I'd trust my life with. He's like a brother to me, more. And what's a bonus is I'm his, how do I put this when there's no such thing as a Wolf-to-English dictionary, "Alpha Female" in the family; somehow he manages to be father and brother at the same time. Just like I'm mother and sister. Kids need leaders. Except me. I don't need a leader, I lead.

My arms were pumping back and forth by my sides like pistons and I scanned everything as it came, looking for a way out. Yeah, I could outrun them but they were so determined, like foxhounds on a scent of a fox that's lived too many days past it's welcome. One thing I can thank those crazy Puppeteers for is that fact that they made us faster than normal adult humans twice our age; stronger, quicker thinking and more daring too. Exactly what I need to lead with Sirius.

Suddenly I hear something huge rushing through the air in a leap and I throw myself sideways, dodging the pouncing Hyena-puppet that had launched itself at me with a running jump. I pulled my ankles away from it's snapping jaws and when I was content that they had locked onto air and not my foot, I planted an upper cut into his jaw. Blood spurted from his jaws as his teeth crushed hard together and his neck made a satisfying cracking sound, the snow beneath him splattered with red. Nothing better than making Puppets snap first thing in the morning. He hit the snowy floor, unconscious. Not dead. Clan rule: we don't kill. It makes us as cold as them.

In the space of a second I was up on my feet again and running, able to see the edge of the woods. I can tell you, as soon as I was bathed in the light of the great outdoors I snapped open my fourteen foot wingspan of tawny. Dappled pale silver, white and pale tan gold. Yeah, maybe I forgot to mention that little feature of me when I talked about me being special. Oopse. My bad. But anyways, I caught the wind, raised high and fast into the cold air and soared, my eagle-sharp silver blue eyes scanning the ground, not just for Puppets but for my family too. Where were they? Had they already got out of this Hellhole and escaped? No. I could see them now. Freedom was being barred from them by a twenty foot electric fence complete with razor wire. Down at the bottom was my family, tall, fair and reliable Sirius and massive, bronzed and unstoppable Nyx, along with two smaller and skinnier figures on Nyx's back riding piggyback. Leonidas and Artemis, my little ones. Leonidas is scarcely seven and Artemis nearly five. For a long time it had just been me, Sirius and Nyx, then came along our boys who we had to look after ourselves. I had a strange sort of bond with the two youngest, a motherly bond that I didn't have with the other two guys. They were dependent on me, and I always looked out for them.

I land as Sirius kicks a cloud of dust at the fence, a net of blue electricity racks through the dirt and scorches it black. One mean fence. He catches sight of me and suddenly yells

"Got any ideas, Anon?"

"Yeah. I do actually." I reply, "But it might sting a bit."

No. I'm not going to make them tackle the fence. Sure Nyx could barge down a metal fence but I'm not the kind of person who lets her Clan get electrocuted. Holding out my fist palm down I looked at them both hard. Neither of them looked happy with my idea. Getting electrocuted would probably hurt less.

"We have to clear the fence." I said gravely. Sirius and Nyx clapped their fists on top of mine one after the other.

"Hold on, you two. Tight." Nyx growled at Leonidas and Artemis on his back. The youngest members of the Clan gripped onto Nyx's sides and gulped. I wouldn't let the youngest do this, it would hurt too much and probably knock them out. I'd rather not have them endure that.

Suddenly Sirius nearly choked and Nyx's jaw set, muscles clamping shut like lockjaw. Wings erupted from their backs bones first, only about four feet in wingspan to begin with, but stretching out, becoming wider and longer, to larger than mine. But only by a little. Nyx and Sirius are bigger than me. With a run up and a great leap all three of us snapped open our wings and caught the air, soaring high above the Puppets and free in the skies, in the never ending blueness that was flooding into the sunrise.

Then the unimaginable happened. Several larger than life bangs of some kind of rifle and Nyx suddenly snarled in pain. His version of a screaming in agony. Almost before I could react myself Nyx had thrown Leonidas and Artemis to Sirius and I, then was plummeting to earth.

“Nyx!" I yelled, holding onto Artemis tightly and totally shocked that I couldn't help him. Sirius and I dived straight down, desperately trying to catch up with the shot Nyx. We must have reached him at the same time, grabbing an arm and managing to slow his decent to earth. We skidded across the snowy ground and I scrambled over to him, Sirius with the boys in each arm checking they were ok from our crash landing. Nyx was motionless in the two inch snow. Blood was flooding from the holes in his scaled, dragon-like wings and his face was contorted in anguish. His eyes were clamped shut and his teeth were gritted. I touched his face to feel his temperature, get an idea of how bad it was. Suddenly his hand clamped around my wrist like a python on steroids. His dark red eyes opened slightly and he recognised me, letting my hand go and his arm thumping down onto the white ground.

"Nyx, come on! Get up!" I urged frantically. He struggled up to his feet and tried to spread his wings but they snapped back together instantly with a bone twisting cracking sound and his hissed through his teeth.

"Frickin' Hell…" he growled.

"Can you walk?" I asked "Run, dare I ask?"

"Think I'll have to…" he replied taking a stride forwards, his legs bruised and aching but not broken as far as he could tell. He turned his head abruptly and shot us all a troubled glance that could only mean one thing. "Puppets."

So we were running again, wings still out. I didn't know if Nyx could fly, even if Sirius and I carried the boys. His wings were torn up pretty bad. I could count four holes in his right wing, the one closest to me. A few degrees to any given direction could have ended up in his chest, taking everything out of him. If only we could find a ridge or cliff and glide, maybe he'd have a chance. We'd already had to leave someone behind. Sirius's younger brother by two and a half years… Cerberus. But there was nothing I could do, we'd seen him be dragged away and recaptured by the Puppeteers, screaming for us to keep running. Little hero. He was nine years old. Thinking about him and how he had been torn from us ripped my heart and brain to pieces every time. We'd been forced to leave someone very precious behind. Now here we were, the Southern end of the Blue Mountains, Australia, escaping from the Stronghold.

The sounds of snarls and engines filled the air, Puppeteers and Puppets alike coming after us. Now we knew that they were armed, vehicular and really, really angry. If we got caught now, we would have risked everything and we would be returned to the Stronghold to encounter a fate worse than death. The last thing I had heard Cerberus yelling was for us to be free. If we had to go back and see his face again when we had failed to escape it would be… a fate worse than a fate worse than death. If we went back with the Puppeteers, we would destroy his every hope of escaping himself. If we succeeded in escaping, it was not impossible for him to bask in freedom too. For Cerberus.

We had to make Leonidas and Artemis run on their own now, carrying them was slowing us down and I could practically smell the rancid breath of the predatory Puppets hunting us. They were catching up in their vehicles, ploughing over the white ground faster now the ground was clear of features. That was when my eyes fixed on the open space between the ground and the horizon. The ground came to an immediate halt, a cliff with it's floor fifty feet below ground level. I gripped onto Artemis's wrist tighter and I saw Sirius adjust his grip on Leonidas. Artemis looked up at me, his face a little paler than it should have been after running fifteen hundred metres being chased by rabid mutant killers and their even more rabid scientist bosses. I tried to assure him with my eyes. He could trust me with his life. He gripped tighter on my hand too.

"Anon, is this wise?" Sirius yelled as we ran. The cliff edge was getting closer and closer. Thirty feet. Twenty feet.

"No." I replied with a nervous laugh. Ten feet.

"Oh God no." Nyx muttered. Zero feet. We launched ourselves off the cliff edge with our final stride and soared into the air, catching the breeze as best we could and gliding further and further away from that slice of Hell called the Stronghold. We'd done it. We were flying away. Not around a gym surrounded by walls of stone, this was freely in the air, feeling it rushing through our hair and the feeling of freedom surging through my blood with the adrenaline. Left far behind us was our living nightmare. The Puppeteers who created us. The Puppets who hunted us. The life we all had to suffer for as long as we could remember. All so very far behind us.

I swore right then that they would never hurt us again.

I

'd been awake earlier than the others, I always was. I was already showered and dressed, fresh jeans and grey t-shirt still smelling like laundry conditioner because I reminded Artemis to put on the machine last night, as usual. Right now, I was watching Anon sleep. She shifted a little and her wing muscles tensed. As a Grafted bird-mutant she could not make her wings disappear into caverns in our skeletal structure like all the other members of the Clan. Then again, she didn't have to go through the pain of transforming so they fitted back inside her, like the rest of us did when we returned to our Graft state. She frowned and twitched, her hands curled into fists. I wonder who she was arguing with. She was having a nightmare, I could tell, but so probably was the person she was fighting against. She relaxed all of a sudden, breathing deeply.

"It's creepy when you watch me sleep, Sirius." Anon said after a few breaths, without opening her eyes.

"It's the only time when you're quiet and peaceful." I replied with a smile. "You learn to appreciate it."

Anon opened her eyes, a pure silvery blue through her hair that was neither brown nor blond and smiled back at me. She sat up and shoved me in the shoulder playfully with one hand, pushed her fringe out of her face with the other.

"What were you dreaming about?" I asked out of curiosity.

"How we got out of the Stronghold and ended up here." she replied. "Good times, huh?"

I smiled a little, knowing just how much Anon hated that dream. She'd told me about it every time she had it, the Puppeteers, the Puppets, the snow, the trees and leaping off the cliff with wounded Nyx into freedom. I could remember that day all too vividly as well.

There's always been a me and Anon. Back in the Stronghold all those years ago we had been the only ones in our sector to actually meet. When she was four and I was five, Nyx was added to our pair. I guess we've always been close because we've always had each other. I guess it's that bond that helps up keep our family together, the Clan. It only ever failed once… and I don't want to talk about it really.

I left the room as Anon headed for the shower and returned to the room I shared with Nyx. Sure enough there was a leg hanging over the top bunk wall barrier. Nyx slept like a rock, his coarse breaths when he exhaled blending in with the hum of the air conditioning. Out of the blue a hand clapped down on the wall barrier and Nyx sat up, head brushing the ceiling and making his wild black rainforest of hair squash down, yet still the free angles stuck out in every direction.

"Morning Nyx." I said, expecting his cheery and well-mannered morning personality. Not.

Nyx grunted and stretched.

"Mornin'." he answered. Morning, Nyx's worst stage of the day. If he'd had it his way he'd be sleeping for twenty two hours of the day, the remaining two hours for food and bathroom breaks. No matter how much he seemed it, he was not secretly part koala and in this house we all take part in chores in daylight hours.

Not bothering to use the ladder Nyx swung down from the top bunk. Nyx had always been taller than me, but in the last few years I'd shot up but never passed him. I was six feet tall, Nyx was about six inches on top of that, as tall as a basketball player and built like a rugby player. Aussie Rools be very afraid. With our genetic enhancements we were all taller than your average kid of our age; stronger, faster and smarter too. I'm fourteen and the oldest by about a matter of months, Nyx and Anon are fourteen. The oldest three of the group, Anon and I are the most historical members. Nyx never really talked a lot or shown as much emotion as us, even in the beginning. He's a pretty mysterious guy but somehow Anon can read him like a book, even though he may as well have been formed out of ice and shadows. She's good at understanding people.

I looked at the clock on the chest of draws and decided it was time to awaken our two youngest members. Our second youngest is Leonidas who's nine, then the youngest is Artemis, seven. Walking into their room I opened the curtains on them.

"Rise and shine, muchachos." I said tugging at the duvets they had hibernated in. Artemis sat up and yawned, rubbing his dark oriental eyes.

"Hi Sirius." he said was a dazed I-just-woke-up-where-am-I-again look. He yawned again, his canine teeth noticeably longer and sharper than they would be normally. Artemis is Grafted tiger-mutant, his dark hair is streaked with a denser black the seems to form stripes in his hair.

Maybe I should explain what the whole "Grafted" thing is about. When you're Grafted it means that with all the different DNAs in you, your body adapted well to only one of them, your constant and real form. Me for instance, I'm always kind of wolf-like. I get weird feelings when I sense things normal humans can't hear or feel, I have sharpened canines, I have to shave more regularly than most fourteen-going-on-fifteen year olds and… I have a tail. Yeah, creepy fact number one, Sirius has a wolf tail. Go on, go all shocked and amazed. Get over it.

Ok, enough about me; Leonidas is still ignoring my wake up call. I'll sort that out. So, I decided to do one of the things that annoys Leonidas most. Licking my finger I dug it into his ear.

"Finger of Justice!" I said.

Leonidas squirmed and made a squealing noise and a gruff grumble that sounded like "Gerrof!"

Hissing like an agitated lion - which he is by the way - he wrenched the duvet over his head.

"Come on, up." I said "It's fifteen minutes later than usual and I let you sleep in." I said.

"Hello. You've called Leonidas's answer phone service. Leonidas cannot get to the phone right now, so if you'd like to leave a message, that would be great. I might let him get it in half an hour…" grumbled Leonidas from under his duvet.

I sighed.

"Finger of Justice, strike two." I said, leaning over the lump where I knew his head was. Leonidas slammed the duvet down with a grimace and bared his teeth at me. His "fangs" as he called them weren't as impressive as mine so and bared mine back. Ha. Score one to Sirius.

"Dude, you're evil." said the only female voice in the house. Anon was stood in the doorway with damp darkened hair and a towel around her shoulders.

"Anon!" exclaimed Leonidas and Artemis together.

"Hi you two." Anon said, drying her hair with a towel and sitting on Leonidas's bed. She ruffled his dark mane of curls affectionately. She looked up at me. "Ok, plan of action, Sirius?"

"Well," I said analytically "as usual Nyx is hogging the shower so for you guys it's have breakfast before showers."

"I'm gonna make toasties." Leonidas said.

"And we can finish off that fruit salad I made last night." agreed Artemis.

Perfect little tag team. Before you say it, no, we don't make the little ones do all the chores. Leonidas likes to cook and Artemis likes to make things out of just about anything. We didn't tell them to do anything. Anyways, when we went out to get food we went in pairs and raided anywhere where there was life. We tried to do this as little as possible. Y'know, stay away from human society as much as possible? Not be seen?

Sure enough half way through breakfast Nyx came sauntering in, completely shameless, in only a towel and sat at the table.

"Nyx, how many times do I have to tell you?" Anon groaned as Nyx started tucking into his toastie. The male majority of us all groaned and recited in one voice;

"'So long as Anon is in this house we will have at least some respect for her female mind and sanity'."

"Oh good." Anon replied tonelessly. "Prove it."

"You know I have to spend ages in the shower." grumbled Nyx in his low voice. "You're lucky your Graft didn't give you freakin' scales."

Ok, here's a Nyx creepy fact. He didn't manage to grab a shower yesterday and his skin went all rough and weird, scaly kind of. It always does that when his skin dries out over a day or two. Maybe something else about Nyx, every day, every month, every year, Nyx has never got any older. Nyx has always been fourteen. I've never known him any other way, and come to mention it, Nyx says he can't remember either. Maybe when the Puppeteers made him he was fourteen and no matter what happens his skin sheds a tiny amount - probably very little more than a normal human like you - and his skin grows back in a way that doesn't let him age. Maybe the Puppeteers erased his memory and he once was a normal kid who could grow up, have wounds that took days to heal instead of minutes and memories of… being, y'know, normal. I have no idea how old Nyx really is, nor does he. You don't exactly go up to a Puppeteer or even more doubtfully a Puppet, smile sweetly and say "Hey, how old is Nyx anyway?" Nah. Doesn't work that way. If I were asked my opinion, I would have said Nyx is going to be fourteen forever. That would be kind of cool, but it would be kind of wrong in the end. Sometimes I wished I could see into Nyx's mind and look at what he's thinking, find out what he really thinks about all that we as a Clan are and about his… aging disorder thingy.

Anon sighed and took another bite of her toastie. Now I was content to eat too, the Clan were together and we were all ok. Nyx rolled his dark red eyes at me, glinting vivid crimson in the daylight, and I couldn't help smile a little, but I gave a little stern look to tell him joke's over. Maybe Nyx had not aged in personality as the years passed, like he had not changed in image. Still fourteen at heart.

Finally eating like the rest of the Clan I thought about Anon's dream. How we got here. Well, I can tell you, we would never have got here without Dr Logan Wolfgang, wherever he may be. He was the total genius smuggled us out of that Hellhole and gave us this hidden house to come to. It's been nearly three years since we got out of that Hellhole. Two of those years we had with Wolfgang, when he'd treated us like real human kids who weren't mutant freaks. You have no idea how that made us feel. To be able to talk to someone about everything, someone who let you play board games, cooked good food for you until you could help, tucked us into bed a night.

Nyx and Wolfgang were so close. Closer than any of us, the two of them could talk so freely. Maybe Nyx knew Wolfgang before, but he says he can't remember. Now Wolfgang is gone I wonder why I didn't ask him what happened to Nyx all those years ago, if he really did know him before. Even in the Stronghold when the other Puppeteers called us Canine Experiment No. 14, Avian Experiment No. 7, Amphibian Experiment No. 1 and the like, Wolfgang put in the time to learn the names we'd given ourselves. Sirius the Dog Star, Canis Major. Anon, the short abbreviation of Anonymous and also meaning "at once" or "immediately". Nyx, dark and silent Night Gods that could guard or hunt mortals, depending on their mood. Leonidas the great king of Sparta who fought to the last man at Thermopylae with his three hundred elite soldiers against the massive Persian Empire and it's king Xerxes. Artemis, after the great Spartan commander at Thermopylae, the technical genius who could hijack a government vehicle or computer, land, sea or air in a blink. And Wolfgang had taught us to improve ourselves in every way we dared, and unlucky for the other Puppeteers we'd left behind, we had no boundaries. If we did, they were weak and got broken down very often. Wolfgang made us feel special, special in a nice sort of way. He even taught us how to morph safely (safer) into different Grafts. I don't know what happened to Wolfgang but I'm positive he would rather die than betray our hideaway to the Puppeteers.

So here we are. Alone in our mountainside house half hidden by nature, hidden from the world. We're on the a north tip mountain where the sides aren't engulfed by snow every year for too long. The house is a ring shape, in the middle is a huge courtyard where Wolfgang taught us to fly and use our other Grafts. Here my family and I could be ourselves and be safe.

Since Wolfgang vanished there had been no grown ups. Repeat, no grown ups. Party time. No one telling us when to go to be, no one to tell us what we can and can't eat, or even telling us when to change our clothes if we didn't want to. But we do. FYI.

A real house and real freedom. Not like living in a cage and being tortured for the sake of "science". Yeah, we'll have a bit more on that one later.

However, instead of living in a madhouse the Clan has Anon and I to keep everything in check. It's a hard and usually thankless job but someone has to do it and it takes both of us to keep things running smoothly. They'll thank us later.

This house is awesome. Since it's build on mountain side, half of it is raised on stilts. We're almost entirely hidden by trees. Our windows are special so they reflect the trees but are dimmed so they don't glare light from or off them. Downstairs there's our kitchen, living room, rumpus room, Wolfgang's old study and the mudroom where we keep the vast collection of shoes we have between us and the washing machine. Upstairs is the airing cupboard, the bathroom, four bedrooms (mine and Nyx's, Anon, Artemis's and Leonidas's, then Wolfgang's old room), the shower room and the steps up to the attic. We're entirely self sufficient up here. Wind turbines, solar panels, firewood, underwater stream with our own water purifying machine around the back. If no one knows no one asks questions.

A house truly worth the description of "uber-cool".

None of the Clan have been to a real school, but who needs school when you had Wolfgang, books and the internet? We keep things to ourselves in this house, no one from the outside knows about us. If no one asks questions, we're as good as safe. We stay alive.

Chapter 3: Another Day in Paradise.

Anon:

I

put the fruit salad back in the fridge, then tossed a clean serving spoon back into the correct drawn and suddenly I felt like I was being watched. Every hair stood on end across my neck and my spine tingled icy cold as if a winter breeze had channelled its river of sub-zero cold down my back.

"Nyx, stop it, damnit!" I hissed, spinning around.

There was Nyx, finally dressed and his hair partially combed. Obviously he gave up half way, his fringe combed loosely over the left side of his face and the rest of it sticking out at every angle it could manage. I could see his dark red left eye glinting beneath the curtain. He was leaning against the doorframe and looking cool and silent as usual.

"How do you get about so fast?" I asked like I did every morning. Twenty seconds ago he was drinking milk from the carton in a towel. Now he was dressed, as combed as he could get and standing behind me in the opposite door to the one leading to his room. I hated it when he did that.

"I'm like Superman," he replied as usual. "I know when I'm needed."

"Needed?" I repeated carefully.

"Needed." confirmed Nyx.

I gave him a glare that was partially sarcastic. Nyx suddenly threw himself to the floor, then even more suddenly I was forced to dodge to the left as a bamboo cane with a pencil sticking out of it flying through the air.

"Nyx!" moaned a small voice, followed by a little Leonidas. "You warned her! You were just supposed to duck!"

Nyx's expression was chiselled out of stone.

"Boring!" jeered Leonidas as Nyx continued to look at him disapprovingly.

"Screwed," replied Nyx "if you'd actually done Anon some damage and messed up our leadership."

"I was funny though." Artemis muttered under his breath from behind Leonidas. However Sirius, Mr Keen Hearing 2007, was behind Artemis, heard him and gave him a cuff over the back of the head.

"This house would fall to pieces without her up at all our waking hours." he justified.

"You little imps." I murmured, then Artemis smiled sweetly.

"That's not what you want to call us, Anon." he said.

Oh yeah. Artemis can read minds. Damnit.

"Today, I think we should do something outdoors. Something fun for everyone." Sirius said after we had sorted out our dishes and laundry. He gave Nyx a quick gledge. "And I don't mean sleeping in trees."

"What ever gave you that impression of me, Sirius?" he responded innocently.

Leonidas started making snoring noises and Nyx raised a fist as a threat. Nyx would never hit one of the Clan. Maybe he wants to sometimes but I just know he wouldn't. He cares for the Clan, he just doesn't show it all the time.

"Ok, we'll all go out." I said as a final conformation. "Who's doing what?"

"I thought maybe Leonidas and I could go exploring again." Artemis said. That was the Trouble Twins. Best friends and always off together having some kind of minor adventure hunting under rocks and in trees.

"I'm going to find a lookout tree near them then." Nyx said, always looking out for the two whether they liked it or not. He now did it automatically.

"Sirius and I will be walking around." I said. "Don‘t go too far. Don't leave the tree boundaries. It's summer, we don't know who could be out there on vacation."

"Interfering Evens." Nyx grumbled. I shot him a disapproving look.

"We were once Evens, Nyx!" I snapped. "Or nearly were."

Nyx grunted. Well maybe we were, couldn't be too sure about Nyx.

Nyx called normal humans Evens. Evens for correct, humane genetics. Normal genetics.

I guess that made us 'Odds', then. I guess we kinda 'odd' compared to the other six or seven billion people out there.

Before we knew it we were out the door and into the trees, the fresh crisp air. I linked onto Sirius's arm like I always did, trying to catch him off guard every so often and shove him into a ditch, then run off laughing. That one never got old, because I was prepared to wait until his guard dropped.

Leonidas and Artemis were running and jumping, tackling and rolling about, messing around like normal seven and nine year olds should do when they play.

Nyx was Mr Composed Cool and Closed, ten feet behind us. I could feel his tension. It made the whole air freeze.

I could feel his eyes too. It made the hairs on the back of my neck prick up. Nyx always did that when he looked at us from behind, Sirius and I. I guess he just likes knowing we're safe and in sight.

Creepy as it is.

"Holy monkey!" cried Leonidas lifting up a rock and beckoning Artemis over. Artemis sprinted over as quickly as his legs would carry him. If only he were taller he would have longer legs. He was the youngest, always had been, always would be.

Peering down into the shadow of the rock he and Leonidas tried to catch the small inhabitant lurking beneath it.

"We could give it to Anon later!" Leonidas suggested to Artemis.

"She'd want a creepy crawly as a gift?" Artemis puzzled.

Leonidas smiled, revealing his constantly shape canines, a feature of his Graft besides his mane.

"Anon always said it's the thought that counts." he grinned, putting the many legged creature into his jeans' pocket.

Suddenly as large shadow loomed over the two young boys and the colour drained from their faces.

Artemis could sense that the mind of the being creating the shadow was not of Anon, Sirius or Nyx.

"Hey kids." said a voice in a twisted sickly sweet way. "Home time."

A pair of strong hands grabbed around their shoulders and covered their mouths to stop them screaming, then forced their young faces into the hard ground.

Sirius and I strolled along side by side. Everything was so calm and so normal. It was so nice when it was quiet, me and Sirius in our own little world. We didn't need to talk to understand each other's moods when it was like this.

That's us. Best friends. Always.

Now before you say anything, reader, Sirius is not, repeat not, my boyfriend. We've always been best friends as leaders of the Clan. We have two leaders because if we have opposing views we can meet halfway and hopefully that would be the better option. I'm the only girl in the team and it just happened to turn out like this. Comprehende compadre? Good.

There are no relationships in the Clan. We're a family. These guys are as good as my brothers.

Suddenly my bird senses saw their chance and I hooked my foot around Sirius's ankle. As usual I tripped him up and he crashed down but this time he took me down with him. We rolled a few meters down a slope until I'd pinned him.

Yeah. Girl-power.

An evil little laugh rang in my head. I'd always been able to pin him. Whether he let me or not, I didn't care. I could do it! Although I'd never try that one on Nyx. Well, use your imagination. Six foot six of precarious crocodile wouldn't be too pleased with my attempt.

"Damnit." muttered Sirius under his breath. He looked up at me into my silvery blue eyes. "I let you do that." he said.

"Sure." I replied. "Sure you did."

So there we were, in our little world.

Just like the Puppets that had leapt out of the trees Nyx had dropped down from his like a shadow, equal body mass to a Puppet and probably stronger. His claws were out and his arms were looking coarse and scaly already. He had scaly features around his eyes and as he spoke he showed his mass-er-if jaw full of jagged fangs. A true crocodile.

"You picked the wrong Clan to play predator with, pal!" snarled Nyx with an arm around a Puppets throat, cutting off his oxygen. He squeezed so tightly everyone heard a crack and the Puppet fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

Leonidas was biting the Puppet's hand that was gagging him but Nyx was faster in his attack. Kicking the Puppet in the small of the back he snapped a sharp chopping action into the back of his neck, knocking him clean out.

"Run, Leonidas, Artemis." he said, looking around three hundred and sixty, flexing his fingers. "Find Anon."

"What about you?" Artemis asked scrambling up. He had blood down his face coming from his nose.

"Don't worry about me." Nyx said tonelessly. "But if you have to worry about something, worry about what I'm gonna do to the Puppets around here when I find them."

Sirius's ears pricked. They literally twitched.

He sat up, pulling his back away from the warm grassy ground.

"What is it?" I asked, tuning my senses but not recognising the signals.

"Artie and Leon," he said slowly, reading the noises like words on paper. "We left them with Nyx, right?"

I nodded a little nervously.

"Where's Nyx then?" he questioned.

I leapt up and clenched my knuckles so hard I nearly felt them crack.

Sirius and I spun around to face east where the sound was coming from.

Who ever was coming, they were coming fast.

"Anon! Sirius! ANON!" screamed a familiar voice. Leonidas, crashing through the trees.

"Where's Artie?!" I demanded as Leonidas threw his arms around my waist, shaking. The side of his faced was already starting to bruise.

A small rusting in the bushes made my skin tingle.

But out crawled my little Artemis, blood down his cheek and his lip split. I hugged him close, examining his wounds. If those diabolical, evil Puppets had done him some damage I'd rip everyone one of them in the country to shreds with my bare hands!

"Nyx…" Artemis whispered. "He saved us…"

All eyes fell on Nyx. He stood where he emerged from the trees, icy and controlled, expressionless. His emotionless dark eyes said nothing.

"Oh no…" whispered Artemis suddenly. His eyes seemed to have gazed over and he almost looked like he'd fallen into a daydream. "…They were counting on this."

"Artie, what is it, sweetie?" I said as calmly as I could, smacking my inner panicking on the head with a mental sledge hammer.

"They're at the house…" he whispered and his deep hazel brown eyes widened like saucers. "All this was a distraction."

We reached the house and I nearly thought we'd taken a wrong turn. But there was no way we could have taken a wrong turn, our home was the only place for miles. Windows were smashed. Walls were torn up. Every door from the front entrance to Wolfgang's study was ripped off and trashed. I ran through every broken door complete with the code-lock hanging off in pieces and realised that there was a huge gaping expanse in the corner of the room.

Wolfgang's safe, his treasure chest of all the things he wanted us to know when we were mature enough to crack the code, had been ripped out of the concrete and brick security measures and dragged away and out of the house, judging by the drag marks that tore up the floors.

I'm putting money on the idea that those bozos from the Stronghold have gone ahead and dragged it all the way back to the base for the Puppeteers.

We had escaped, all those years ago. But now, I couldn’t help getting the feeling that they want us back, bad. But I won't let them. And what ever they stole inside that safe was Wolfgang's, and it must have been important. No one steals from Wolfgang and gets away with it.

"We're getting what they stole back!" I yelled in anger, punching the air in rage. "Those files were some of Wolfgang's most important! We don't know what'll happen if they open the safe and get their antiseptic-y hand on 'em!"

"They tried to kidnap me and Leon too." Artemis piped up, holding onto my free arm. "I don't think we can stay here anymore."

"Artie's right…" Leonidas said quietly. He looked around as if he were taking in one last image of a place that would be as good as dead to him in the near future. A place that would die with our safety. "They know where we hide. They want to take us to the place they took the safe."

"We know where they took Wolfgang's safe," Nyx said. "The deep south of South Australia."

"Back to the Stronghold." Sirius said for him. "They want us back."

I didn't want to believe it but deep down I knew they were right.

I looked around our once haven. Smashed. Ravaged. Destroyed. And it hurt. The first place we knew outside the lab, and where we spent the last few years before Wolfgang vanished. Now we had no where, but we sure as Hell had a destination. The Stronghold, on the other tip of the mountains range.

"Where do we go?" asked Artemis gingerly.

"Anywhere." I said. "We just have to get out of the mountains. Somewhere they won't look for us instantly."

I didn't want to say 'somewhere they won't find us', because Puppeteers have ways of getting what they want in situations like this. Nothing would stop them from finding us. All we could do was delay it.

I looked at my Clan and their broken faces tore my insides apart.

Chapter 4: Run.

Anon:

I

t had taken all my heart and soul to leave that place, our first safe haven; now nothing but shadows and memories. We'd packed our few necessary belongings, some money Wolfgang had left in a draw - for us? I don't know but it was in an envelope with our names on it; Anon, Sirius, Nyx, Artie and Leon, which was next to the metal computer chip and the folded piece of paper with the random words on it. We packed tinned and packaged food, a first aid kit for emergencies and climbed up to the highest point we could find. We had to do that now Nyx couldn't fly properly. His wings couldn't be fixed without surgery to his muscles and bones and I had a feeling the last place Nyx wanted to be was in surgery. He could glide though, use the winds and air currents to raise him up when he needed. He never flapped his massive, dragon-like dark green wings. He was swift, stealthy and silent, the air around him undisturbed. Even though he had a backpack full of food and stuff on his back he seemed not to notice the excess weight. He just flew gracefully.

Very cool. Not as if I would admit it though. I'd learned to keep my emotions to myself when I was in the Stronghold and I guess it had stuck as a leader.

The rest of us had to flap our wings though.

Sirius's wings were different to mine - mine being real bird wings, feathers and all. His were furry and dark brown with a lighter underside. Artemis and Leonidas had different wings too. Sort of like furry bat-ish wings. Have you seen bat wing? Furry. Still with a fur-like texture Leonidas's were burning gold like a lion's coat and Artemis's were sleek amber with black stripes. They looked like little punk rocker wings.

So there we were, now eighteen thousand feet in the air cruising on the air currents. We would head to Sidney and keep our heads down in the outer suburbs. Somewhere we could find food and shelter. And hopefully no Puppets.

You remember how I mentioned that I had the dark feeling that the Puppeteers wanted us back? I also felt that stealing the safe was only the first attack on our Clan. We had to move to stay alive and out of reach.

You also remember the dream I was having before, how I said it was real? Yeah, I guess this is the time I told you a little more about where we grew up.

It started off with Sirius and me, the first two of the Clan to meet and the roots of an unbreakable bond. We were created in a lab surrounded by scientist - Puppeteers - with their experiments and their equipment. Of course there were others, but they died at various points until only Sirius and I were left. Survival of the fittest, we'd all been faced with that as we grew.

We lived in cages, small ones where we could crouch or sit but with barely enough room to turn around. Our cages were bare, cold metal on our skin. In my nightmares I can still feel the icy texture through the lab uniforms they made us wear, long, grey shapeless shirts and identical, baggy cargo trousers. When you grew out of those like Sirius did you had to were the grey toned cammo fatigues that other Puppets wore. Nyx always wore them, being so tall. We had no shoes, probably to slow us down if we got loose. But now we were free, five survivors who had risked everything to escape from that Hellhole. We'd suffered under the Puppeteers for so long, under the emotionless eyes of the Puppets - a lesser species of mutant. The Clan have multiple animal DNA in us, one of which became our Graft, Puppets only have one. Usually predator; fast, strong and bloodthirsty.

And we got out with the help of Dr Logan Wolfgang, a Puppeteer himself, and the only man to ever show we mutant freaks any compassion in the world.

But at a terrible price.

Cerberus. Cerberus was the only thing that lived in the lab to be called a failure. He had no Graft and nothing seemed to affect him. He couldn't morph or anything, but he didn't need to be able to do the amazing we could to be special. He laughed and smiled and told riddles and jokes. If you thought the whole world was against you and wanted to be swallowed up into the caverns of Hell to make it all end, Cerberus could make you smile and realises that there was a light in the darkness. Leaving him was like leaving behind a chunk of my soul, and flying away was like flying with one wing. There hadn't been a day when I didn't think about Cerberus and wonder if he was alive. I hated thinking of what the Puppeteers probably did to him when they caught him, that plucky little non-conformist. Wolfgang had told us time and time again that if it were in his power he would do all he could to rescue Cerberus, but his escapade had made it impossible for him to return.

We flew all night, tough on the little ones but I knew that travelling by night was our safest option. As the sun rose we settled in a small harmony of trees, sprawling in their safety. And I don't mean under the trees, I mean in the trees. I could see Artemis and Leonidas on tree limbs, Leon with his weight spread between two branches and Artie snug in a tree fork like a koala on the Discovery Channel. Nyx was sleeping sentinel as usual high above us, breathing rhythmically. Sirius took over my usual nightly round to make sure everyone was settled. I was shattered having been leading the Clan in our flight for twelve hours plus. My shoulder muscles were buzzing from our flight and I fanned my face with a random leaf to cool myself. A few more days of this and we'd been in Sydney. Civilization, what we'd been avoiding for so long.

"Anon?" spoke Sirius. "I've been thinking it over in my head. What do you plan to do when we reach Sidney?"

"I have two plan." I said, but not one hundred percent truthfully. "We rest up, get prepped, gather up supplies and get ready to storm the Stronghold. Then we teach them a lesson they'll never forget. No one crashes our tranquil haven and gets away with it in my book. Or, we find somewhere we can be safe. Safe from everyone else. I'm hoping the second one."

"And how long do you think that'll take?" asked Sirius. "If we end up having to go with the first one? Sounds likes more than a week. We need to be cautious of the little ones. They'll say their ready when they're not if they think that's what we want to hear, so we have to be one hundred and ten percent before we go rushing into this."

"We'll figure it out," I told him firmly "like we always do. As a team we'll find the best option."

Sirius smiled and snuggled down into the spongy grass beside me. He face suddenly contorted.

"D'ya think he's still there?" he whispered, looking over at me.

I prayed in my head we weren't thinking about the same person. I smoothed my jacket over myself as a blanket like Sirius had done with his.

"Who?" I tested carefully.

"Cer…" he whispered, breaking the eye contact first.

I sighed and settle down too, shifting my weight to not crush my wings.

"I hope not." I answered slowly and carefully, my eyelids feeling heavy. "I really hope not."

Chapter 5: Back in the sky.

Sirius:

S

omeone shifted my arm.

"Sirius. Sirius." a familiar voice whispered.

I sat up and yawned, rubbing my eyes. There were the Clan, raiding through Nyx's backpack for breakfast. Or dinner. The sun was setting. Good. Travelling time. We'd slept through all the daylight hours as planned.

"So, what's grub?" I asked pulling my jacket back on.

Anon had a stern look on her face.

"We heard engines." she said to me quietly not to be over heard by the little ones. "Nyx and I. I don't know if the boys know but Artie may have read my mind by now."

"Ok," I said quickly glancing over to the Clan. Nyx was using his index claw as a tin opener on the cans of pasta shapes in tomato sauce and handing out food to Artemis and Leonidas. They seemed happy enough. Situation normal.

Anon held out a hand and I took it, heaving myself up. I rolled my shoulders to relieve some of the stiffness in them, another hard nights flight ahead of us.

We ate in total silence, which is unnatural for us. Leonidas didn't even say a word. I kept on trying to make eye contract but it wasn't working. Everyone was looking at the floor and looking as sad as I felt that we'd left our home. Our days of been safe seemed to have ended so fast, the years we had seemed too short. Maybe if we found another safe-house we could live safely again. On the other hand, Puppeteers knew we were moving and would be dying to get their antiseptic-y hands on us again. They weren't taking us back, so long as Anon, Nyx and I were still breathing.

We caught the wind between our vast array of feathers, Nyx swallow diving out of a tree and catching the convection currents, soaring upwards and catching us up in no time at all. I glanced up at Nyx, but his eyes were looking ahead. That was when I had a good look at the scars on his wings. Nothing scarred Nyx, but I could see patches on his wings where the skin was sort of disturbed, if you get my drift. It wasn't as smoothly scaled and stuff. Hard to describe.

Flying onwards the air felt different. It smelled faintly of city, car exhaust and stuff. You could sense the change when you lived in the pure air of the mountains for ages.

I looked back ahead at Anon leading the way. I pushed forwards a little faster to level with her.

"I smell Sidney." I said as cheerfully as possible.

"We're making very good time. If we keep going like this we should be ready to meet it face to face by tomorrow." she said. That meant clearing about 45km, so I'd guess off the top of my head about 24 miles, a day and the air currents were good, then sleep away some of the night so we can try and mingle in. Keep things at a steady pace, an easy pace. Sure, we could cover about six hundred miles in seven or eight hours if we really pumped our wings. Over a hundred miles an hour. But do you have any idea how many calories that would take? And that's how long it would take if we barely stopped for breath, let alone sleep. Nope, we're cruising this one. Maybe some pace later when we're all in one piece. I'm not making the Clan do that. I'm sure they would if I asked them but I'm not. Keeping a slow pace I'm pretty sure even Nyx'll make it. We'd have to find a good spot to land first and catch those well deserved Zs. Of course, all that would have to change if we suddenly started getting chanced. Enjoy the calm while we can.

By dawn we must have landed on someone's land. There was a man-made little forest of gum and eucalyptus trees we found we could settle in. After doing my head count I leant up against a tree, having bargained with Nyx to do the next four hours of watch after me. I'm so clever I even surprise myself sometimes. Of course, Anon tried to make me let her do a watch but I flatly refused and made her let me and Nyx. She needs to be up to full strength to lead, and when I told her this she huffed a bit and finally put her head down.

My watch had only ended about an hour ago when suddenly I felt Nyx nudging me urgently.

"Huh?"

"Listen." he grumbled deeply. I saw Anon and the boys hold her breath.

I tuned my ears and listened to every slight noise. I could hear engines.

Then, speak of the devil, roaring around the corner came two identical black jeeps, windows shaded and with passenger and driver dressed in that formidable, grey toned army print uniform I dreaded so much having grown up in the stuff surrounded by crazy scientists.

Puppets. The whole Clan was up and on our feet when suddenly something metallic and coloured gun metal green clinked off the floor.

"Get airborne!" I yelled but before we'd pushed up off the ground it was too late and all we could do was grab the person nearest us and throw ourselves to the floor.

The explosion shoot my brain as I covered my ears and clamped my eyes closed. The grenade raised a cloud of dust and as it began to settle I gave a headcount. Anon had Leonidas clutched into her chest protectively as she lay in a ball on the floor, Nyx was already getting up glancing around and I realised we were missing someone.

"Artie!" I yelled into the dust cloud that surrounded us on all sides.

Then I heard the rev of engines and a boy screaming and fighting a battle he could not win.

The Puppet who had thrown the grenade was wrestling Artemis into the back of a black jeep, Artemis clamped onto his wrist, blood seeping out from between his teeth - the Puppet’s blood. The Puppet smacked him one over the head and stuffed his small captive in the back of the vehicle.

Whoever was driving put their foot to the floor.

The jeep hurled down the dirt track at over seventy miles per hour, trailed closely by the other. There was no way those monsters were taking Artemis. I pumped my wing muscles harder, feeling the strain in my shoulders. Wolves weren't built to fly but I was.

Suddenly a shadow appeared above me, casting darkness on my face. It was Nyx, running like an Olympic athlete along the canyon ridges. He was catching up. Without a word he suddenly snapped his wings open and soared forwards, faster that ever and gaining speed with equal momentum to me.

"Yo, Nyx!" I yelled holding out an arm to him. "Need a boost?"

Nyx connected with my eyes, his face as void as ever. He took a hold of my arm with a vice-like grip and streamlined himself as much as he could.

I came to an abrupt, instant halt and slingshotted him forwards even faster, sending him straight into the back doors of the jeep.

Nyx ripped the door off with his claws and the jeep swerved. The jeep behind suddenly tried to ram into the other, trying to crush Nyx in the middle. Nyx put a size UK thirteen foot through the front window screen, then in perfect teamwork Sirius attacked the drivers side, taking a monumental punch in the eye but clinging on until he'd clawed the driver's face and the jeep skidded uncontrollably off track. A stripy head suddenly appeared over Nyx's shoulder. Artemis! I breathed a sigh of relief and Anon whooped beside me, punching the air in victory.

A small orange and black blur suddenly erupted from the doors as Nyx let go, free in the sky.

A Puppet leaned out the window with an elongated silver device. Guns. He fired off several shots in Artemis's direction, failed, then turned his attention to us.

I rolled in mid air, dodging where I traced the shots with my enhanced sight. I looked in the back of the jeep, searching frantically for Wolfgang's silver and black safe. I couldn't see it. Could it have been in the other jeep that crashed?

Angling my wings to slow me to a halt I yelled out the to Clan

"It's not in there! The safe's not in there!"

"You're sure?" Anon demanded.

"Positive." I replied. "They're running now. We've won this one."

We made our way to the wreckage that was once a jeep. The jeep Nyx had put a foot through. We searched inside the compartments but there was no Puppet and definitely no safe. The door hadn't been touched.

Suddenly a gunshot cracked through the air, indirect fire, and I snapped my head around.

"Get airborne!" I yelled loudly snapping my wings out and taking to the skies. Sorry Evens for crashing your 'normal' little lives, but we got a safe to recover and some Puppeteers to repay. All those Evens would have seen were five dark figures disappearing into the sky, leaving behind a smashed jeep and a grenade creator.