A low, feral growl reverberated in the arena. That wasn't Haywire—not truly—but Mrs Evergreen's Monster, ready and willing to kill his opponent.

His well-built body had all the muscles defined and tense. The eyes were clear and shiny despite being scorching red. His spiky ears were shot upwards in a sign of defiance. His claws had sharper nails than before.

Damn. He looks fearsome! Does he have a sharper vision, more strength, and faster speed, like me?

The beast readied his clawed feet and pounced.

Sky's eyes went open wide, and he dodged his attack by rolling onto the ground, far from his reach.

"Sky!" Hazel yelled in panic from the other extreme of the arena, her back pressed onto the big double doors of the exit as she grabbed her Swiss army knife with trembling hands.

"Pick the lock!" Sky replied. "I'll keep him distracted!"

The teen was on all fours, panting and staring straight at Haywire as he stared back at him with defiance. His heart drummed in a crazy rhythm inside his chest while Haywire's fiery mist slowly gained thickness.

The winged beast had missed once, but he wouldn't fail for long. An ear-splitting roar thundered from the dark depth of Haywire's throat to the circular walls of the arena.

Sky spied the control room from the corner of his eyes for a moment.

Mrs Evergreen had turned off the lights in the control room, but he could still see her. Sipping red wine from a big crystal cup, she watched the scene with fascination as she sat on a huge red velvet couch in the semidarkness.

The nerve! Might've well fetched some popcorn. This woman is despicable.

But he had no time to focus on the wretched woman. Haywire started to circle his human enemy.

"Haywire! It's me... Sky!" he shouted at his winged friend.

The beast's growls were a primal sound that made Sky's hair stand on end. Every sinew in his massive body was tensed, his feathers bristling with animosity.

Sky stood up with open palms in a sign of peaceful demeanour. "Please, remember! I'm your friend." He took some steps in the opposite direction.

The beast's feral eyes gleamed with an untamed fire, locked onto his adversary with an unwavering focus. His beak snapped with authority, and his talons slashed at the foe before him.

Sky ran away out of his range in the nick of time.

"Sky, use the sonic gun!" Hazel yelled.

It would stun him, probably. He's meaner... and who knows whether his body is more resistant than before. But... what if I accidentally kill him like when I hit that Thunderbreaker? I would never forgive myself!

"Haywire!" the teen said with a trembling voice. "Remember. We met at the clearing. I cured and freed you. You took me flying every evening! We-"

With each step, Haywire moved with calculated grace, his wings unfurled to their fullest extent. His talons scraped the sandy arena floor. His beak's edges glinted menacingly in the arena's harsh lighting.

His fiery mist was thicker than Sky had ever seen before. It's gonna blast it soon. I need cover!

"You have to remember, please!" he insisted with open palms and a pleading gaze as he took some steps backwards.

Haywire made a click sound deep within his throat, and a spark of fire emerged from it, setting the whole mist on fire in the blink of an eye.

The blast forced the teen's body backwards. He landed harshly on his back. With a groan, he turned on his side and coughed. Through his dishevelled green fringe, the towering silhouette of his winged friend stood tall and menacing, his feathers flared.

Sky gasped and crawled away as fast as he could, heaving.

A defiant growl from Haywire soon followed.

"Come on, Mr Falcon!" Mrs Evergreen shouted through the speakerphones as if she was bored. "Do something worthwhile! Show us your prowess!"

I have to do something to change the tide here, so to speak. I can't let Mrs Evergreen define this moment, lay out the rules, and such. And I can't let Haywire think fighting against me to the death is fine. I have to stop him somehow—without harming him, if possible!

Sky stood up with some difficulty. His jeans were torn and dirty. He had sand in his dishevelled hair.

Haywire started to flap his wings, creating a powerful wind. His feet hovered gently over the floor.

The sand flew into Sky's face. He covered it with both arms and groaned.

"Get on with it, Monster!" Mrs Evergreen demanded as she pressed a blue button on a special remote control. "Kill him with your special attack! Now!"

Haywire's eyes went white for a second. He whined loudly back at her. But when he shook his head, he was fine again. He flew all around the perimeter of the arena at a mind-blowing speed.

Sky's pupils shrank in fear. His mouth was agape. Damn! He's faster indeed!

After a few laps, Haywire arched his neck back just like when he used to attack the Control Tower before they had become friends. It's as if he is getting ready to launch a sonic echo attack. Weird, because I fried that component with my sonic gun.

No sooner had he thought about it that Haywire opened its beak, and the sonic echo attack was shot forward into Sky's general direction.

Sky's jaw dropped in astonishment, and his eyes were shot wide open. He sprinted to his left and almost got out of the way. Unfortunately, some weaker sonic waves hit him, pushing his body onto the stone walls of the arena with brute force.

"Sky!" Hazel yelled with worry from the other extreme of the arena.

A painful groan escaped from his lips as he closed his eyes shut. He lost control of his balance and fell to the ground. When he opened his eyes, he saw double. Every attempt to stand was futile, not to mention excruciating.

He stared at the threatening approaching figure of his opponent as it flew towards him. His ears hurt due to a loud and annoying ringing. He covered them with his hands and gritted his teeth in pain.

How did this happen?! My sonic gun hit his sonic echo component inside his head and destroyed it!

Haywire landed in the arena, puffing his chest out with satisfaction, and started to walk to his human enemy.

When Sky regained some composure, he stood up with awkwardness. He took his hands from his ears, panting. They were stained in blood. Fuck.

"Surprisddd, Mr Falcnnn? The Lifebringrrr serum took ovrrr all affectddd areas of Haywire's body—includddng its brain," Mrs Evergreen's voice said, though muffled. "It menddd everything, creatnnng new tissue wherrrver it could, including the sonnnc echo component you brkkke."

I can't hear her properly. It must be a consequence of the impact.

"A tougher body, hyper-developddd muscles, an unbeatable speed, and restorddd components and skills. The Lifebringrrr serum sure made this beast a dream! Or a nightmare, depnnnding on whom you ask." A dark giggle followed.

I have to do something!

The shaking, double image of Haywire was ready to pounce on Sky again when the teen unsheathed his sonic gun, aimed, and fired—but missed.

The attack made the beast distrusting and cautious. It jumped abruptly to Sky's right, running in a circling motion to make sure he reached the teen's blind spot—his back.

Ah-ha, nope. My sight might be partially impaired, but I know that there's a stone wall near my back.

Sky shot his right arm in Haywire's direction and fired once more. He hit the beast's shoulder. The shot also hit the wall, making some stones break and causing a deep, vertical crack on the wall.

A cry of pain soon followed. Haywire's body and tail hit the wall once as it tried to flee from the range of the teen's weapon in an awkward move, but he ended up dropping his body onto the cold sandy ground of the arena.

Damn! I'm so sorry, big fella. Sky leaned against the wall on his back and, with a heavy heart racing at full speed with adrenaline, he aimed once more at his winged friend. He clenched his fists and his arm trembled with frustration and self-hatred.

I can't do this! Not again. Not now that he's already hurt. His arm shook violently, and he closed his eyes in pain, a tear sliding down his cheek as he lowered the gun.

Haywire was crawling away and staring at the control room, whining at his mistress with a begging attitude.

"You cheated, Mr Falcon," Mrs Evergreen said. "I want you to use the powers the Lifebringer's given you."

Pathetic. I can hear her better now, but I wish I couldn't. The Lifebringer in me must be curing my ears at full speed right now. But I don't want to listen to any more of her crap.

"Monster!" she yelled in an icy voice. She raised a hand, where the remote with the blue button was. "Kill the human—or I will kill you!"

That spurred the poor beast to stand up and face Sky once more. He growled at Sky in defiance. His bright red eyes pierced the tiny human ones.

"Mr Falcon," she added as Haywire started to walk towards him with predatory leopard-like movements, "use your physical prowess this time—or else..." She played with that same remote to call his attention.

Leaving that sentence unfinished can only mean big trouble—for either me, Haywire, or even Hazel. I guess she can force Haywire to commit unspeakable crimes with it, like murdering Hazel and me—or she could even kill him. I can't let that happen.

"If I do as you say and win," he yelled, "you'll destroy that remote—and free him!"

"But if you don't use your powers against him, I'll have a good time killing him," she replied. "And if you die in combat—unless the Lifebringer's made you immortal—, I'll keep him."

Sky put the gun in the sheath. He narrowed his eyes at Haywire with his fists clenched on either side of him.

Winner takes all. So be it.

He took some angry strides towards Haywire at full speed. Since he was faster than his former self, he took Haywire with his guard down.

The beast groaned and fought as Sky jumped on his neck and tried to strangle him with his arms. The teen's improved strength proved to be quite effective against his winged friend's thick neck and his metal feathers.

Hoping to subdue the ranger with that tactic, Sky kept on choking his friend with mild regret as Haywire fought to breathe. His metal feathers made several cuts on the skin of the teen's arms.

The beast's red eyes suddenly faced Sky's, which were shining in neon green hues like a wild fire made of leaves.

My eyes! He gasped. They shine vividly in his red ones as if they were radioactive or something!

"Haywire," Sky said in a begging attitude, talking amicably as he had done before as he stared into his eyes with all the love in the world, "please, you have to remember me! You need to break the coding bond between that monster and you. Otherwise, I'll have to... hurt you—and I don't want to!"

For a split second, Haywire's pupils shook and dilated as he stared deeply into Sky's eyes.

"Haywire?" he whispered, with furrowed eyebrows.

But Haywire screeched so loud close to the teen's ears that his cry broke Sky's concentration and his choking hold.

No! I can't fail now!

The beast pulled away, emitting a feral growl, but Sky soon recovered and jumped on his back to strangle his dear friend once more—that time with a solid idea in his privileged brain.

"Haywire, you're not this madwoman's monster. You're not her slave or her pet. You're my friend, remember? Look at me. Up close," Sky said, forcing Haywire's face to meet his. "That's it. Look at me real close. Remember. I'm your friend. We soared in the sky together. We were free back then, between the orange and pink clouds, chasing the sun at twilight..."

A lump in his throat threatened him with an unfinished sentence before he giggled it away.

"Scaring those poor sheep, goats, and deer from time to time." He chuckled.

Haywire's pupils shook more violently, and their diameter grew wider and wider with every word the teen said, despite the choking hold. Their bond was now frail as a leaf, but it had been as thick as a tree trunk, something hard to erase completely from their minds.

"The wind in your wings, the sea splashing crystalline droplets on our faces..." he whispered as memories blossomed in his mind. "You remember, don't you? Those were the best days of my life."

Sky's hands became weaker around Haywire's neck.

His voice almost broke when he went on, "Because I love you, my friend."

Out of the blue, thin vines grew into thick branches.

The beast closed his eyes shut. A loud whine erupted from Haywire's throat. A short circuit inside his brain fried something and made a thin cloud of smoke come out of his ears. The hold Mrs Evergreen had of the ranger's mind had become as fragile as the powder on the wings of a butterfly, scattered and lost in the wind like pollen.

Sky let him go with a worried expression on his face. "Haywire?"

His winged friend took some steps left and right as if he was drunk, but when he opened his eyes eventually, his pupils were wide and round, while his irises were deadly red no more—they were shining in a bright, proud and unmistakable golden hue.

A cheerful whistling sound came from its beak as he stared at his dear human friend. He merrily patted on the ground, happy to see his human pal.

"Haywire!" Sky exclaimed with joy as he ran to him to hug him. Haywire softly huffed with satisfaction, taking in Sky's scent.

The two friends rekindled their friendship, but there was an unsatisfied third party watching that tender scene.

"What a disappointing outcome, Mr Falcon," Mrs Evergreen said. "You did use your amazing speed and strength to tame my Monster—which were fascinating, let me assure you—but you're too stubborn to obey my orders, aren't you? You had to dip into the beast's memories and push it to break the digital leash I had put on it, hadn't you?"

A groan of frustration came from her lips as she stood up from the sofa, the red wine discarded on the table beside her—but the remote wasn't.

Sky stopped hugging Haywire and furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at her.

"The Lifebringer has surprising effects on you, young man. Not the intended ones from the very start, but it still is an... interesting product at the end of the day." She chuckled as she took out a small flask from the inside pocket of her white blazer. She stared at it as she added, "Your regeneration rate is higher than I expected. How fast you healed! Anyway..."

She let go of a loud sigh and smiled at him while she hid the flask in the inside pocket of her blazer.

"I'm afraid that, since you've partially broken the rules of my test, I'll need to break my word as well," she went on in a joyful manner, but the smile on her face faded abruptly when she said in a lower, harsher voice, "Security code 105. Activate."

An earthquake-like movement shook the sandy ground of the arena, taking Sky and Haywire with their guards down. The teen was forced to kneel while Haywire awkwardly leaned to one side and tripped in the opposite direction.

Enormous cracks appeared on the ground, revealing thick steel bars which interconnected with one another, like those of a giant cage. Thick as walls, those steel bars raised ominously between Haywire and Sky.

When the tremor was over, a huge spheric cage had trapped Haywire. Whining in fear, he approached the bars where Sky was, who was standing on the other side, clueless as to what to do.

"Don't worry! I'll get you out of here," Sky said as he grabbed the bars.

"The test is concluded—for now." Mrs Evergreen smirked, turned around, and left the control room. Her slender silhouette disappeared into a dark corridor.

The ground opened up again like an ancient maw of a titan god, that time to swallow Haywire—and leave Sky's heart sinking in a sea of worry and helplessness.

Hello, my sugar cubes!

What will Mrs Evergreen do with Haywire now? Will Sky ever save his friend... and the city?

Stay tuned!

XOXO

Mar