Wings of Metal~chapter 5

by Bambi:~:Hydra in the mall

It's Bambi now! Um, keep commenting, Hydra will be super happy with that!

Dotty led us all down the hallway. And then I totally lost track of where we were going. There was a bunch of turns and stairs and there was the usual obstacle course stuff. Then we were in a narrow room, more like a corridor. On the left side there were vault like doors, five of them. In neon letters, above each one, was a name: Dotty, Junco, Rusty, Shadow…and Cookie. My nickname. Each of my siblings placed their hand on the square grid that was on the face for the vault and the doors opened.

“Go ahead, Cookie. Open it,” Dotty said, like it was a Christmas present or something.

I took my place next to Shadow and put my palm on the grid. The vault opened.

Inside was some contraption made of light weight metal. The design was complicated: my eyes got lost over all the shapes and sheets and whatever else made it. I ran my finger over the edge of one of the metal sheets that was about two feet long. There were many of those, overlapping each other. They didn’t feel like metal. They felt like weightless silk.

Junco came over. “Let me help. This is kind of complicated the first time.” Then he took all the stuff out and began arranging it on my back, mainly between my shoulder blades. He directed my arms into something like backpack straps, but they were made of soft flexible metal. I watched it mold into my skin, which was weird, but I wasn’t really surprised or anything. Must be my other ‘gene’ kicking in.

It barely felt like anything was on my back when Junco was done.

Dotty smiled. “Now move them.”

And I did. I could actually move the metal that just a second ago had been totally apart from me, but now it felt like I was moving this new body part, with my muscles that I never had before. The wind that I made with my wings rustled my hair. It felt good. I grinned.

Everyone else put their wings on too. I saw Junco reach into his vault and pull out a small pistol and tuck it in his belt.

We exited out of a door at the end of the corridor. I was last to take off. I mean, how exactly do you fly? They were telling me to hurry so we could get out of sight, so I just jumped and started to beat my wings up and down. I shouldn’t have worried, because I got the hang of it in just a few seconds. By far not perfect, but I could do it at least.

Junco led us higher into the sky so we wouldn’t be seen by people below. I flew next to Dotty. She was such a good flyer. She flew like she swam; she parted the air with her wings like she parted water with her arms. Sometimes she did little dives and flips like she does when she jumps off of a diving board. Junco, whose wing sheets were larges, flew with determined purpose. He kept on looking down below and at me, seeing how I was doing.  Rusty was ‘sprinting’; using his wings, and then soaring for long periods above us, totally relaxed. He looked like he could fall asleep right then and there. Shadow made no noise when he flew. He kept on darting behind everyone and then laughing darkly in their ear, disappearing when they turned.

I caught him doing it once and chased him. I discovered how fast I was in the air when I wasn’t so clumsy at flying.

“Do we need to get any groceries?” Shadow joked.

“Actually, we need some chicken for dinner tonight,” Dotty said.

“Wanna come with me, Cookie?” Shadow asked.

“Sure.”

“We’;; wait above Wal-Mart while you guys drop off your wings,” said Junco.

Shadow and I flew back to the house, being discreet about it. We used the door on the roof of the house, the one we had come out of. Dotty, Junco, and Rusty headed to Wal-Mart.