Animation Source Forums

Kara grinned as she drew the closest metal object to her; the blades from a mixer. It ended up bringing the mixer too, and turning it on, she drove it into the Eraser's thick, matted fur. With a cry of pain, chunks of hair and skin were ripped out. Who knew kitchen supplies could be a weapon, she thought, satisfied with the results anyways.


Rue couldn't help but watch that particular scene, and grinned at the sight. It turned in to a grimace as claws scraped down her arm, leaving ragged marks that were already beginning to bleed a lot. She gripped the Eraser's arm, twisting it behind him and pulling. A small pop, and he was stumbling back in surprise, arm dangling uselessly.

It seemed to take forever, but finally they wiped out most of the Erasers. Rue advanced on one of the last remaining ones menacingly, eyes narrowed. The Eraser growled, and Rue dodged his lunge by a hair, hitting him near the collarbone as he passed through empty air. Eyes red with rage, he whirled to claw her, but she jabbed a finger into his eye, and he howled with pain. Clapping her cupped palms around his ears, he collapsed like a stone.

Kara turned on one of the others, raising the mangled mixer menacingly. "Boo," she said, her satisfied grin turning into a threatening look. Seeing the other Eraser, still whimpering on the ground as a result of her "weapon", he only gave a half-hearted growl, backing up a few steps.

Kara advanced, the mixer reluctantly whirling to life. He was soon down on the ground too.

With one final knock to the face, Lark had beaten his last Eraser oppressor. ...Or so he thought. One came up from behind, locked his furry arm around Lark's throat, holding Lark's head with the other clawed hand. Lark kicked his legs backward as hard as he could and pulled at the muscular arm trapping him, but it barely did anything. Suddenly, Lark felt the ragged breath of the menace in his ear. "You're comin' with us, bird brains." snarled the kill-happy predator.

As if on cue, right after the Eraser finished his sentence, an egg smashed on the side of his face, the yolk dripping down his snout. Furious, he whirled toward the direction the egg came from, and there stood Pascal, holding the remaining eggs that Lark had left on the counter. An evil grin was spread across the boy's face as he yelled, "Here doggy, fetch the ball!" On "ball", he tossed another egg, this one landing right smack between his eyes, the guts of the egg sprawled about the Eraser's face. He stomped toward Pascal, looking so mad the eggs could've cooked right there on his head. "Why you-"

Seeing the distraction, Lark saw an opporunity, and jumped at it. He swung his legs above his head as high as he could and kicked the Eraser in the face, making him drop the bird-kid. The instant Lark hit the ground, he sprung back up, hardened the skin on his forehead, and head-butted the Eraser, knocking him out. Lark wiped the egg yolk off his face that he got from the Eraser and ran over to Pascal, hugging him so much he picked him up. "You evil genius, you!" he cheered, but then put him back down and said solemnly, "You need to make sure the girls are okay, and I'll check the rest of the house, okay?"

Pascal saluted. "Aye aye!" he announced, running out of the kitchen to find Rue and Kara.

"Hi, Pascal!" Kara said, oddly cheery, considering what happened. "Did you know if you use a mixer on an Eraser, they collaspe like sacks of flour?" She grinned as she spoke, looking pleased with herself.

Unlike Kara, Rue was not cheery. Not at all. Her face was incredibly pale, her normally indistinct freckles sticking out clearly. "I need to talke to Lark," she mumbled, exiting the room. She was in time to see him disappear around the corner, and followed him, grabbing onto his arm.

Feeling pressure on his arm, Lark gasped and swipped around, thinking it was another Eraser. He had a hard fist up in front of him, ready for a fight. When he saw it was Rue, he let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and lowered his fist. "Geez Rue, you scared me!" He straightened his position to face her, standing a few inches taller than her, which was a trait he picked up from his father. "What's the matter?"

"You do realize those were Erasers, right?" Rue said, her voice quiet and low. "Which means the School is real too." Only then did the full impact of what that meant hit her, and she turned even paler, if possible. "The....whitecoats probably sent the Erasers after us. They know where we are, Lark. We'll have to leave, go on the run. Like...Mom and Dad, and all of them did."

Lark stared back at her, her words hitting him like a ton of bricks. "On the run?" he repeated to himself. Deep down, he knew Rue was right. Staying here could cause someone to get hurt... or worse. "But, the kids-" he began to say, but then he remembered what their parents had told them, and how young Pascal's mother, Angel, had been when the original Flock went on the lam. He sighed, holding onto his bloody shoulder. "Alright." he quietly agreed. "But where will we go?"

"I don't know," Rue said, sounding more determined as some color returned to her cheeks. "But we can't let the School get them." By them, she meant Pascal and Kara. She knew that both Lark and herself would prefer they undergo that than the younger kids.

Memories of their parent's stories of the School, how horrible it was, and how they'd cheated death that could have been possible by the whitecoats and Erasers, flashed through Lark's mind. Him and Rue were the same age, and they'd always been responsible for the younger kids. Lark remembered when Kara and Pascal were just babies, and they'd raised them and have been with them their whole lives. There was no way any wacko scientists were getting their grimy hands on them, and Lark knew he would die for them, and knew Rue would do the same. His eyes flickered with an idea. "Didn't your mom and dad tell us once about a high cave with hawks?" he asked, hoping Rue remembered the place. "Didn't your dad say he stayed there with Kara's mom for a few days, and they were safe?"

Rue's brown eyes lit up, and she threw her arms around Lark. "I don't know what I'd do without you," she said happily. At least now they had a plan. Those whitecoats would regret ever being born, once they had they had the chance to plan some more.

Lark laughed when she suddenly hugged him, and he accepted her embrace. Suddenly, his smile disappeared and his blue eyes looked nervously downward. "How're we going to tell Pasc and Kara?" he asked with a depressed tone. "They're both so young; do you think they'll be okay?"

"They might've already realized it. They're smart kids. But...." Rue pulled away from him her brown eyes comepletely serious. "You can tell 'em." She didn't want to have to voice one of her deepest nightmares aloud. Lark could do it for her.

Lark pointed to himself. "Me?" he said, followed with a sigh. "Fine. Whatever." he added grumpily. The one thing he hated about Rue being leader was that Lark was the same age, and a boy, so he thought he would be more fit as leader. Besides, the cave thing was his idea. He had a bad feeling about how the kids were going to take this...

"A cave?" Pascal cheered. "Really? We get to live in a high-up cave with hawks? So cool!" Pascal celebrated when Lark announced the idea to him and Kara. Pascal jumped up and down excitedly, then grabbed Kara's shoulders. "Did you hear?" he shouted happily, "This is gonna be awesome!"

Lark solemnly interrupted. "Hold on, Pasc." he began, "While I have no idea why you're so excited, we're gonna have to lay down some laws for this." This was his chance to play alpha for a change. He counted off his fingers, putting one down after each rule. "One: We should probably take some things we need with us. Two: No one goes off by themself. And three..." he looked to Rue for this third one. So what if he'd just given up the spotlight? None of the kids were probably going to listen to him anyway. It seems like everyone only listened to Rue anyway.

Rue shot him "the bird", the same glare Max would've given. It was one of the many things she had inherited from her mother. "First, as an addition to the first rule, only take the necessities. No stuffed animals, MP3s, or any of that. Bring a blanket if you want, or a sleeping bag, but we'll mainly be taking food, water, and stuff like that. As for the second rule, you can go off by yourself, as long as either me or Lark approve. Just be careful guys." She took a deep breath before launching into the rest of her "speech".

"I don't know if either of you have guessed, but the...the School is real too. I had no idea that the stories our moms and dads told us were true...I thought they were just stories. I guess not. We just fought off a bunch of Erasers, which we should be proud of."

Kara grinned as she remembered the mixer.

"But they'll be sending more soon, is what I'm thinking. We need to leave before that happens. We can't risk ever going to the School. Ever. So rule number three, basically, is stay under radar. Keep your head low if we run across others."

Kara had guessed, somewhere in the back of her mind, but hadn't given thought to it. Now that Rue had finished talking, the message had time to sink in, her smile fading to be replaced by worry.

Pascal stuffed his hands in his hoody pocket, than took one hand out again to wipe the blood off his face. "Rue," he said quietly, looking at his shuffling feet. "You know how your mom, Max, was supposed to save the world? Well, we never really knew if she succeeded, right? So... what if..." he paused, biting his lip. He knew if he happened to say this wrong, Rue AND Lark would never let him hear the end of it. He looked up at Rue, worry forming in his eyes. "...What if Max died before she could save the world, and that responsibility was passed down to you?"

"That could be why they sent Erasers to capture us..." Lark added to Pascal's proposal, letting the realism of what he said sink in. If Max already had saved the world, then why would the whitecoats want her and the Flock's children?

"And..." Pascal continued, tears forming in his eyes from speaking his greatest fear. He sniffled. "If the original Flock already did their job, then most normal humans would be gone, like my mom told me they would be." Pascal was well-aware that his mother was a monster, despite her young age. But she knew the whitecoats' plan to kill off the weakest humans and let the recombinants run wild, and he was sure they all remembered, too.

The color once again left Rue's freckled cheeks. "Crud," she said, mulling the thoughts over. "Crud," she repeated, a bit more forcefully. Her brown eyes honestly looked a bit panicked. "I don't want the responsibility of saving the whole freakin' world. But...you're right." The silence felt incredibly heavy, like the weight Rue now felt on her shoulders.

Kara noticed the look on Rue's face, and looked worried herself. She slipped her hand into Rue's. "It's not like you're doing it alone," she said softly. "We're helping."