"Whoops!" Iris took a step backward, then turned tail as one of the lumbering red brutes came toward her. "That's my cue to skidaddle!" Okay, so maybe tossing mud in his face wasn't the smartest idea in the world. But it sure was funny.

A smile pulled at her mouth. This would be, too. She concentrated hard on the ground, below which a network of sprinklers ran. They were supposed to keep the grass green, but then again...

The ground rumbled a bit below their feet. Suddenly a spout of water erupted from the ground, followed by another, and another, and another. Within seconds ten mini gysers had erupted. Iris swept her hand backward toward her pursuer, drenching him and the ground between them. As she ran, she also pulled more mud toward her, until a glob the size of a baby pool followed her. She smiled, and glanced back to see how close he was.

"Whoa!" Iris hit the brakes as the giant landed in front of her. Fortunatly the ground in front of her wasn't as slick as that behind her. He reached out to grab her. She knew that if he got hold of her, that was it. She threw herself backward into a backflip. Even as her body bent backwards, the blob of mud flew over and plastered the red man in a mud bath.

Unfortunatly the flip landed her back on slippery ground, and her feet skidded from under her, landing her on her rear. For the second time that day she yelped in pain. But it only lasted for a moment as she concentrated on getting to her feet and away from those giant red hands.

The identity of the person inside of the whirling cloud still eluded Darius and in his frustration to see what was going on he completely forgot to be aware of his surrounds. In this time of blindness unknowen to Darius a red man beneth him had hurled a tree up towards him. Darius could almost see the mans face inside now "Glare!!" he yelled as he saw him though a gap in the cloud, what was one of the schools teachers doing so far out here he thought to himself when his thoughts were suddemly interupted as his senses went into over drive, his ears picked a rushing sound behind and as he spun around the tree that the red man threw was rushed up to greet him. With only a few seconds before the tree would collide with him Darius opened his eyes which released the force of the sun though a devasting eye beam that blew the tree apart into splinters.

This evasion had its cost though, the splinters hit Darius piercing his skin all over his body. Blood trickled down from tiny wounds all over his body. Darius winced as he spread both his arms and his wings out wide to gain more of his essential energy from the sun. As he gathered more energy the splinters slowly pushed themselves out and fell back down to the earth as Darius's wounds close up. "Thats better, now wheres the culprit" Darius said out loud, he scanned the ground looking for the red man and to his suprise he could see at least three of them. Its never easy is it Darius thought to himself as he tried to pick out which one to combat.

He thought he had found the one who assaulted him when he caught a glimpse of a fourth in the corner of his eye and to his suprise Iris was there aswell, I've got to help her out first he thought to himself as he sped down at a stunning speed. The man was alot bigger than Darius first thought and he knew that he was stronger than himself, it looked like him and Iris would have to work on him together. "Iris whos your friend haven't had the pleasure of meeting him yet" He said to Iris as he landed next to her and looking into the devils eyes.

"You will die by these hands, girl."

For a split second, Iris thought sure he was right as she felt him grab her. Fortunately the mud let her slip out of his grasp like a fish. "No thanks, I think I'll pass on that offer," she called back. By that time he looked like a bull after a matador; majorly ticked off. In the back of her mind she knew she was pushing her luck, but she couldn't help herself. Adrenaline rush, big time. He was slower than she was, but if he decided to call in the others, it wouldn't matter. She had to figure a way to put him out of commission, and quick.

A shadow loomed over her from above. Instinctively she ducked and rolled away.

"Iris, who's your friend? Haven't had the pleasure of meeting him yet."

Iris looked up in surprise and confusion. "Darius? I didn't know you had wings??" A loud growl sounded from behind, and suddenly Iris felt herself knocked rolling. Her shoulder stung, and when the world stopped moving, she found herself covered in mud. A small giggle left her mouth. "You mean Big Red? Somehow, I don't think he's interested in being friends.

The giant roared angrily and came lumbering toward them. Iris leapt to her feet. "Sorry! Gotta run! I wouldn't stay there if I were you!" she added to Darius as she fled. Despite the situation, a big smile lit her face as she again took off running. She had an idea, if she could get past the others and to the Water Works. And if her luck held out.

The brute stood there staring Darius down, he had to try and delay him so how. "Iris" Darius yelled as he took off after and grabbed her by the arm. "We can take this guy trust me, all we got to do is put our heads together" he said as he scanned the area with his eyes looking for anything that would spring an idea into his mind. Just when it looked like the brute had enough of watching them flee it hit him. Darius pulled Iris close and whispered into her ear "Cover him with as much mud as you can trust me I've got an idea that could stall him long enough for us to get to better ground" he said as he took off the ground and began to circle around the red giants head.

Iris halted and listened, then glanced back over her shoulder. "Okay, if you say so." If Darius had a plan, great! If it worked, even better. If it didn't, she had a backup. Hopefully. She just hoped that Big Red was already so mad he wouldn't think to call in reinforcements yet. She looked back at Darius. "Better use those wings. Terra Firma's about to be not so firma anymore." She pulled away and headed for one of the few trees still standing, and climbed to the nearest branch.

The ground was still slick and muddy, and water still gushed out of the broken sprinklers. As Big Red did his best to navigate the mud pool, Iris held out her hands in front of her, and concentrated hard. The mud began bubbling and gurgling. Globs of mud began reaching up to grab at his arms and legs, pulling down. When he tried to take a step, the mud sucked at his feet. Iris couldn't help but giggle as one of the big brute's shoes was sucked off, stuck in the mud. She forced herself to keep concentrating. Mud was harder to control than water, since it was thicker. She kept pushing the mud up and over, trying to completely cover the big guy. She spared a sideways glance up to see if Darius had avoided the mud pit, then another down to see if the other Big Reds had noticed yet.

"Perfect" he yelled as the mud covered there foe. Now its my turn Darius said as he streached out his arms still circling the giant. His eyes began to glow there dangerous yellow and the air around Darius suddenly got hot and hard to breath in. "Here we go" he yelled as he brought his hands together with his palms facing the giant.

A bright light escaped through them both and using all his effort Darius concentrated the power down and aimed towards the giant. Darius circled him as a oversized blow drier as the mud began to set and harden. "Iris, it looks like its working I think its time we find better ground do you agree" he shouted as he stopped the beam of light and landed next to Iris.

Iris couldn't help herself anymore. She fell over backward laughing. She wrapped her legs around the branch to keep from falling off, which made her look like an overgrown bat.

"He looks like a giant volcano cake!" She caught just the faintest whiff of alcohol coming from Big Red. "Whew! Make that a rum crumble. Nice one, Darius!" She grinned at him upside down.

Suddenly the ground began rumbling, and the tree shook. Still upside down, Iris turned to see what the commotion was. A yelp left her throat as she let go of the branch, just barely missing two blurs of red that shot overhead, WAAAYY too close for comfort. She twisted and landed, again, on her butt, and again yelped. <"Man, I have GOT to learn how to land,"> she told herself. The rumbling grew, and she saw the rest of the Big Reds headed for the party. None of them looked too thrilled, either.

Behind her, the original Big Guy, was also working his way out of Darius' mud bake. With three behind them, and three....no wait....four more in front, things did not look promising. She glanced over at Darius, thinking how nice it would be to fly right now, even like the two soaring giants that nearly grabbed her.

A smile slowly spread across Iris' face. "That gives me an idea," she murmured aloud. She concentrated hard, feeling for the water flowing above and below her feet. She couldn't control it all; her powers weren't that strong yet. But the amount she could control would be enough, if she could give it enough force. "Darius, better take to the air. If this works, I'll meet you on the other side of those four," she nodded toward the ones coming from in front. "If not, it was nice knowing ya."

She took a deep breath, raised her arms, and thrust downward. A stream of water erupted below her feet, lifting her off of the ground and into the air. She shrieked in both delight and fear. If she couldn't get the timing right, she was out of the game. But still, what a THRILL!! Her body tumbled up and over the four lumbering brutes, and headed back down. She put all of her focus into the water below her, as much as she could pull toward her. She felt her back sting as another geyser rushed up to greet her, partially cushioning her fall. It hurt, but not half as much as hitting the ground would have been. The water flowed back toward the ground, and she rolled away with not much more than a sore bum. She began giggling, then laughing. "Okay, next vacation, I'm heading for Old Faithful in Yellowstone. That...was...a...BLAST!! Oops!" Suddenly she remembered what she'd been doing, and took off running toward the Water Works, and the sprinkler maintenance shed. She spared a glance backward to see if Darius had also gone aloft.

Skoliro winced as he heard the tree hit the outside of the bat wall. He felt the pain of the bats that had been hid and curled into a ball. As soon as he started to fall though the bats met him half-way and transported him to the ground. Suddenly all of the night lurking creatures dispersed and flew in all different directions into the forest. Skoliro lay on the cold ground for a minute then straitened and opened his eyes. To his surprise he found many more mutants then when he had left the scene for the sphere of mammals.

After watching Iris pull of her truley amazing stunt he took back up to the skies and flowed Iris's movements from above, it appeared that she was heading towards the waterworks of the camp.

Darius smirk slighlty and having seen Iris in action before he could see what she had planned. As Darius followed Iris he could but help noticed more of the Brutes showing up, they where all tailing Iris and Darius could see this wasn't going to turn out well if the caught up with her. Thinking quickly Darius swooped down to Iris leave and pulled up beside her "Need a lift" he said with a smile.

Skoliro sat up and rubbed his eyes, some what weary from the pain. But immediately he stiffened when he opened his eyes again to find 65 giant red men strolling about,and another caked in mud. They looked somewhat locked in battle (though they also looked bored), and he searched for the culprits. He caught quick glimpse of Darius and what appeared to be another mutant, this one female. I've missed quite a bit, haven't I?he thought. Taking to the air he flew up to where he could get a good view of the area. The two mutants that were also in the the air seemed to be heading for the shed up ahead, so he followed. When the red mutant was lifted and thrown into the air he was slightly weirded-out, but managed to stay out of the way. He hoped Darius and friend would dodge too.

"Need a lift?"

Iris grinned and reached up with one arm. "Why thank you!" As she felt herself lifted, she again wished she could fly, too. "Head for that building! I think I have an idea how put Big Red out of action! Or at least get him off our backs!" She pointed toward the maintenance shed with her free hand.

Suddenly the hair stood up on the back of Iris' neck. There was a whooosh!! of air behind them. Iris reacted without thinking, which was both a good thing, and a not-so-good thing. She stretched out and swept her free arm sideways and back, twisting as she moved. The water that had cushioned her fall minutes before swept upwards toward her in a stream, then out. It slammed into what turned out to be one of the red giants, and knocked him backwards, back toward the ground.

Then, it seemed like anyway, it was raining red giants. Iris felt something grab her wrist. She was still wet with mud and water, so the giant's grip slipped and couldn't hold her. But the momentary pull still had strength, and she heard something POP!!. Pain ripped through her shoulder. Whether it was broken or just dislocated, she wasn't sure, but either way, it was useless at the moment, and she was seeing stars....

"Iris!!" Darius yelled as one of the brutes tore at her arm. Seconds before one of them took a swip at his wings tearing the side of one. Darius's wings having better regeneration than the rest of his body start to heal but the several seconds that the wings was damaged made Darius lose control of his flight which lead to him coming to close to the ground for one of the brutes to attack Iris.

He felt horrible it was his fault but he had to put that behind him they had to get to the shed if they were to put Iris plan into action. They where close now and just before they got there Darius noticed a dark shape moving quickly "Skoliro" he said under his breath with a smirk He'll come in handy soon he thought to himself and he swooped down and dropped Iris lightly infront of the shed, he flew on to land ontop of it.

Skoliro sucked air in through his teeth when he saw what happened to Darius and the other mutant. The girl's arm was broken, he could tell from where he flew. He saw the fellow winged mutant perch atop the shed so Skoliro followed. Landing next to him in a crouching position he smirked and licked his lips. There was a little blood splattered about the roof from the other's wing. Reaching down he stuck his finger in a drip then brought it dripping to his mouth. Yum. Mutant blood was always sweeter then human.No,he thought,so far he is my only friend, I mustn't. His mouth watered as he straitened to look Darius in the eye. That was one thing he couldn't control, but maybe he could resist actually feeding from him.

Need some help?

He swallowed the extra spit, hoping his will power was stronger then his instinct.

The flesh and bone on Darius's wing had sealed full up now and he stretched it as the bat winged mutant Skoliro landed next to him. "Good work with Miguel back there, but this ones a different story, Iris hows that arm of yours are you still going to be able to execute your plan" he said as he look over the roof of the shed to Iris who still looked in an aweful lot of pain.