Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

120

Yeah, because it wasn't bad enough, with everyone fighting. Now we had to get the bloodthirsty robots involved. And they had guns.

We continued to push through the crowd, trying to reach a castle wall. I saw Flyboys starting to wade into the crowd of angry, fighting people.

"Why are they fighting each other?" Nudge asked, close to my shoulder. "They should all gang up on the Flyboys."

Angel looked around. "Oh. Yeah."

She stood still for a minute, her brow furrowed with mighty concentration. Then, one by one, all around us, mutants slowed down in their fight, looked around, then turned to attack the Flyboys.

I grabbed Angel's hand and started to push through the crowd again, keeping low. "You are a scary, scary child, you know that?" I asked her.

She smiled.

I almost walked right into a thick line of Flyboys. Looking up, I saw solemn Eraser faces with glowing red robot eyes.

"You must stop," intoned one.

"I disagree." In an instant I launched myself at it, trying to knock it off balance. It was the second-to-last model, and I knocked its weapon out of its hands.

But not fast enough to avoid another Flyboy clocking me in the head with the butt of its gun. I staggered as a starburst of pain exploded behind my ear. A second later, warm blood started running down into my collar.

My flock sprang into action. Nudge jumped high in the air, whipping out her wings to hover below the electrified net but above the fray. Total chomped down hard on a Flyboy's ankle, and I could hear his fangs hit the metal below the thin layer of skin.

"The base of their spines!" I heard a voice call from behind.

I spun to see Jeb wading through the crowd toward us, dodging punches and kicks. "Hit the Flyboys at the base of their spines," he said. "It's a design flaw."

I had zero reason to trust him, despite all his yapping about being my dad, blah blah blah. Still, I had nothing to lose. Wheeling, I escaped my Flyboy and whipped around in back of another one. As hard as I could, I aimed a flying sideways kick with both feet right at its tailbone area.

Crack! Its legs crumpled, and it snapped forward from the hips, unable to move. A couple seconds later, the red glow in its eyes faded.

Huh. Whadaya know.