Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

16

Nudge's side was killing her, and she still felt low on oxygen. But experience had taught that when Gazzy or Iggy said something like that, you ducked and covered as fast as you could. So she folded in her wings, immediately dropping like a stone.

A good thirty feet down, she unfurled her wings and shot to one side, just as Gazzy pushed an Eraser away from him with a muttered "Oof!" Angel had grabbed Total, Iggy had grabbed Angel, and they were hauling upward like pocket rockets.

There were five Erasers left-Nudge guessed they'd disposed of about half of them. Her ribs felt broken, she wished Max and Fang were here, and she didn't know wh-

"Gross!" Nudge shrieked, as bits of Eraser hit her. "Gross, gross, gross! Oh, God, Gazzy! Gross!"

Nudge worked her wings, moving up toward Iggy. She passed one main chunk of an Eraser dropping past her, and saw two others that had been wounded-one's wing was broken almost off, and the other appeared to be missing a leg.

But it was weird, the way-

"You have terminated me," one of them said in a strange, flat voice. "But I am one of many."

"Robots!" Iggy breathed, taking Total from Angel.

"One of many, one of many, one of many," the robot Eraser was saying. Now Nudge saw the red light in its eyes, saw how they were fading and winking out.

"Good!" spat the Gasman, kicking it hard. "Because we like to blow stuff up, blow stuff up, blow stuff up!"

Then all the remaining Erasers seemed to fold in on themselves, as if programmed, and dropped out of sight. A long, long time later, the flock saw the small poofs of dust and dirt showing that they'd finally hit the canyon floor.

"Well, that was different," Iggy said.

"And so gross!" Nudge said, still brushing Eraser shards off herself.