The Fall of Five

26

“Are you sure you’re up for this?”

Ella nods her head as we walk towards the Lecture Hall together. She looks pale, dark circles under her wide eyes, like she’s just gotten over a horrible illness. She made it through last night without any nightmares or screaming fits, but she still looks drained.

“I can do it,” Ella says, straightening up.

“No one will think any less of you if you sit out,” I tell her.

“You don’t have to baby me,” she replies sharply. “I can train just as hard as the rest of you guys.”

I nod, dropping the argument. Maybe some physical activity will be good for Ella. At the very least, it should tire her out enough so that she’ll get some real rest.

We’re the last two to arrive in the Lecture Hall. Everyone stands in the middle of the room, dressed in workout clothes. Malcolm sits behind the Lectern’s console, examining the glowing buttons and levers through his glasses.

Nine claps his hands when he sees us. “All right! Let’s get started! Capture the flag time, baby! The ultimate test of teamwork and, um, ass-kicking ability.”

Six rolls her eyes and Five stifles a groan. I stand next to Eight, who flashes me a quick smile. I hope we end up on the same team.

“The rules are simple,” Nine says. He gestures to the opposite ends of the gym where he’s mounted a pair of makeshift flags made out of old Chicago Bulls T-shirts. “The first team to grab the other team’s flag and bring it back to their side is the winner. You’ve gotta be holding the flag at all times, no telekinesis. Also, no teleporting the flag back to your own side—ahem, that means you, Eight.”

Eight smirks. “No problem. I like a challenge.”

Piled on the floor are four Mogadorian rifles that I grabbed on our way out of Arkansas. Figured we might want them for just this kind of exercise. I notice Sam eyeing them hesitantly. “What are those for?” he asks.

“Each team is going to get two guns,” explains John, jumping in. “Malcolm has modified them so they’re nonlethal. Like stun guns. We always end up using their own guns against the Mogs in battle; I figured this would be good practice.”

“Also, we wanted to give you non-Garde a fighting chance,” says Nine, glancing at Sam and Sarah.

Malcolm strides over from the Lectern, his hands clasped behind his back. “I’ll be using the Lecture Hall’s systems to throw in some obstacles,” he says. “Remember, if anyone gets hurt, it’s okay to call a timeout so Marina or John can heal you.”

Nine sighs, annoyed. “There’re no timeouts in a real fight, so let’s try to keep wimping out to a minimum.”

John glances around, taking a less cavalier approach. “Remember, this is just practice. We’re not really trying to kill each other.” John and Nine are captains, dividing us into two teams. John chooses Six with his first pick, and Nine selects Eight. Next, John takes Five and Nine picks Marina. John’s third pick is Bernie Kosar, and then Nine surprises everyone by choosing Sarah. I expected to go in the last round; there’s no shame in it when the rest of the players are packing superpowers. John picks me, probably wanting to divide the humans up evenly, which leaves Ella to join Nine’s team.

We huddle up at our end of the gym.

“I’m going to turn invisible right away,” Six says. “If you guys can keep the rest of them busy, I should be able to make it to their flag no problem.”

John nods in agreement. “I’m mostly worried about Eight. He’s probably going to teleport to our side right away and make a go for the flag. Sam, I want you and Bernie Kosar on guard duty.”

I pat Bernie Kosar on the head. His beagle fur transforms under my fingers into the smooth coat of a tiger. “Um, yeah. We can handle it.”

“Five, you and I will go on offense. Keep them busy while Six makes a break for it.”

Five looks over his shoulder to where the other team is having their own huddle. “I want to take on Nine.”

John and I exchange a quick look, both of us remembering yesterday’s incident. It’s not every day that someone volunteers to go head to head with the Garde’s battle-crazy lunatic. John shrugs. “Sure. I’ll have your back. Take it easy on him this time, okay?”

Five smiles, a cavalier look in his eyes. “No promises.”

As our huddle breaks, I smile at Six. “Good luck out there. They’ll never see you coming.”

So cheesy. Ugh, way to go, Sam. Six returns my smile quickly. She picks up one of the Mog blasters and tosses it to me. “Thanks, Sam. I’m counting on you to keep me covered, okay?” “I’ll teleport over there, grab their flag, and make a break for it,” Eight says, snapping his fingers. “We won’t even break a sweat.”

Nine shakes his head. “That’s exactly what they’ll be expecting. So yeah, do that. But it’s just going to be a diversion.”

Sarah raises her hand, interrupting. “Sorry, Nine, I just have to ask. Why did you pick me?”

Nine grins at her. “You’re my secret weapon, Hart. There’s no way John’s going to be effective with you making kissy faces at him.”

“Kissy faces?” Sarah repeats dryly, cocking the Mog blaster she picked up. “Do you want me to shoot you?”

“I’ve seen her shooting. She won’t miss,” I put in. I’ve watched Sarah shooting during training. I’m envious of her aim. I haven’t been able to adapt to firearms nearly as quick as she has. They just make me nervous.

“I know she won’t,” Nine replies, getting serious. “That’s why she’s gonna be on Six patrol.”

“You know she’s going to go invisible,” Eight says. “How are we supposed to stop that?”

“That’s where Ella comes in,” Nine answers. Ella looks up from the blaster she’s fiddling with, startled to hear her name. I think she was a little hurt at being picked last.

“Me?” she asks, incredulous.

“Hell yeah, you,” Nine replies. “You’re gonna use your telepathic mojo to pinpoint Six’s location when she’s invisible. Then, you and Sarah light her up.”

“Um, I’m not sure if I can do that.”

“You located her in a big-ass base in New Mexico. This is just one room.” Nine shakes Ella’s shoulder encouragingly. “Just try for me, all right?”

“What am I going to be doing?” I ask.

Nine’s got that proud look on his face—I think I heard John refer to it as “shit- eating”—that he gets when he thinks he’s come up with something really juicy. He grabs my hand and the little hairs on my arm stand up, an electric shock shooting through me. “You, Marina, are my real secret weapon.” “Are both sides ready?” Malcolm shouts from the Lectern.

The two teams stand about ten yards away from each other, close to the halfway point of the Lecture Hall. I glance around. Everyone on my side looks determined. Sam has already started sweating a bit, constantly adjusting his grip on his blaster. Across from me, Sarah shoots me an innocent smile as she brandishes her own blaster. My heart actually flutters in response, but I try to keep a serious face.

“Ready!” I shout to Malcolm.

“Let’s kick some ass!” Nine shouts.

Malcolm hits a few buttons on the Lectern. The room hums to life around us. Sections of the floor begin to rise, creating blocks of cover for people to hide behind. A pair of medicine balls on chains swing loose from the ceiling. Nozzles protrude from the walls, emitting bursts of smoke.

“Begin!” Malcolm yells.

For a moment, no one makes a move. Then, suddenly, my bracelet tingles to life. My red shield deploys just in time to block a burst of blaster fire. I look across the gym to see Sarah grinning at me, the muzzle of her blaster smoking.

“Sorry, baby!” she yells, before diving behind a piece of cover.

On one side of me, I see Six disappear into the thin air. On the other side, Sam falls back towards our flag. Everyone is moving and suddenly it’s just like a real battle. Chaos.

And there’s Nine. Coming right for me.

He’s so fast that I barely have time to fire up my Lumen and toss a small fireball his way. He leaps over it and crashes down on top of me. I fall backwards, my shield between the two of us as he pins me to the ground. Nine pounds down on the shield with all his might. Dents forms in the red material, but the shield holds. Frustrated, Nine leaps off me, and my shield immediately retracts into my bracelet. I get back to my feet as quickly as I can, but even blocked by my shield, Nine’s tackle knocked the wind out of me. I’m slower than I should be.

“You and your damn jewelry, Johnny,” Nine grunts. “I’ve been thinking about that thing ever since the last time we fought. It shocked me when I tried to yank it off by hand, so I wonder what’d happen if—”

I feel his telekinesis working. It’s too late to do anything about it. He rips the bracelet right off my arm and flings it to the sideline.

“Ha!” Nine yells, gleeful. “What’s up now?”

Just as Nine’s about to charge me, Five’s rubbery arm slithers around his waist and flings him to the side. Nine springs right back to his feet. Five stands in front of him, his rubber bouncy ball and chrome ball bearing turning over in his palm. His skin transforms from rubber to solid steel.

“Ready to take another shot?” Five asks.

“Oh, you have no idea,” Nine growls back. It happens just like John said it would. Almost as soon as I’ve taken cover by our flag, Eight teleports into the vicinity. Remembering the rules, that he can’t teleport the flag back across the room, I wait for Eight to snatch our flag off the wall. As soon as he does, I spray him with blaster fire.

Eight yelps in surprise as my first shot electrifies his back, knocking him off his feet. He rolls over. “Damn, Sam! Shooting a guy in the back. Not cool.”

I level my blaster at him. “Drop the flag!”

“I don’t think so,” he says, and scrambles to his feet. I squeeze off a couple more shots but Eight nimbly dodges them, dancing behind a piece of cover. Even so, I’ve got him pinned down and he knows it. There’s no way he’s making it back across the room with our flag.

“Okay, Sam, try this on for size,” Eight shouts. He shoves the flag into his mouth and shape shifts into the form of some freakish ten-armed lion creature. He lumbers over the barricade towards me, swatting my blaster out of my hands with one clawed paw.

“Get him, BK!” I yell.

Before Eight can make another move, Bernie Kosar crashes into him. BK has shape shifted as well. He’s taken the form of a giant boa constrictor. He wraps his body around Eight, pinning Eight’s arms to his sides. As Eight gasps for breath, the flag goes drifting out of his mouth. I snatch it up and pin it back to our wall. I watch as Sarah and Ella, both of them crouched down behind cover close to our flag, point their blasters around the room. They’re looking for a target they can’t see.

“Come on, Ella,” Sarah says hopefully. “You can do it.”

Ella’s face is pinched tight with concentration as she tries to locate Six telepathically. I hope this isn’t too much exertion for her after yesterday’s ordeal. Suddenly, Ella lights up.

“There!” she shouts, and starts shooting her blaster into thin air on the right. Sarah follows suit, not really aiming, just trying to cover the same area as Ella.

Most of the blasts sail harmlessly into the wall. After a few shots, though, one of the electric currents seems to stop in midair. It sizzles for a moment and I see the outline of Six’s skeleton, almost like an X-ray, as it’s knocked to the ground. Six’s form reappears, looking surprised and confused that she’s been caught out. She has to crabwalk backwards to avoid another volley of shots from Sarah and Ella.

“Nice job, guys!” I yell. Ella and Sarah take a moment to high-five before going back to aiming at Six.

I slink along the wall, watching the action from the sideline. No one’s paying any attention to me yet, and that’s just the way our team wants it.

In the center of the room, Nine ducks under one of Five’s steel-plated punches, grabbing Five’s arm as it sails over his head and twisting it, wrenching it behind Five’s back. He starts prying at Five’s fingers.

“You might be made of metal,” I hear Nine snarling, “but you’re still not stronger than me.”

Nine forces Five’s hand open. I can hear the metallic clang as Five’s ball bearing hits the floor. Immediately, Five’s skin returns to normal. Nine shoves him away, right into one of the swinging medicine balls. It hits Five in the face, flipping him over. He groans, holding his head.

“Oops,” says Nine. “Looks like somebody lost his balls.”

I’m distracted by the fighting so I almost step right on the bracelet that Nine tore off John’s wrist. Figuring that might come in handy, I pick it up and snap it on my own wrist. The icy feeling that spreads up my arm surprises me so much that I almost tear the thing off. I force myself to focus, sliding along the wall, staying out of view.

“Hey!” yells John, and it takes me a moment to realize he’s talking to me. “You’ve got something that belongs to me!”

Both of John’s fists glow with fire. He sends two burning orbs the size of basketballs sailing right towards me. I wouldn’t have lobbed fireballs that intense at Marina if I wasn’t sure the bracelet could handle them. The shield deploys in time to absorb them, but the force still knocks her against the wall, stunning her. I don’t know what she’s up to, sneaking around on the sidelines, but I’m sure it’s part of some plan their team concocted.

I glance over my shoulder to where Five is trying to scuttle backwards as Nine stalks him. Not good. I toss a fireball at Nine and he dives away. That gives Five a chance to regain his feet and create some distance between them. Of course, as soon as Five pops back to his feet, a bolt of blaster energy from Sarah puts him down again. Even though she’s really screwing my team over, I can’t help but be psyched at how well she’s handling herself.

Five’s going to have to fend for himself for now. I need to figure out what Marina’s up to and get my bracelet back. I race over to her just as she’s pushed herself away from the wall. Her eyes widen when she sees me coming and she lashes out with a kick to my legs. I deflect the blow and pin her up against the wall, trying to pry the bracelet off her.

“What’s your plan, Marina?”

“I’ll never talk!” she yells, getting into the spirit as she tries to head butt me. Somebody’s definitely been taking dirty fighting lessons from Nine.

“John!” I hear Sam shout from the other side of the room. “Watch out!”

I know what’s coming as soon as Sam yells, but there’s no way to dodge it. Eight teleports next to me, socking me in the jaw and knocking me away from Marina. As I turn to face him, he teleports behind me, kicking me in the back with both his feet. I stagger onto one knee. How am I supposed to defeat a teleporter in hand-to-hand combat? I try to line up a shot on Eight, but he’s moving too fast. He keeps teleporting around John, hitting him with a quick punch and then disappearing before John can counterattack. Next to me, Bernie Kosar is still in the same boa form as when Eight teleported out of his clutches.

“BK, go help John! I’ll hold down the fort.”

He transforms into a huge hawk and soars out to help John. That leaves me alone guarding the flag.

Our best chance for victory is still Six. She’s pinned down behind cover, with Sarah and Ella blasting away to keep her there. I can see her clearly from my position. She’s crouched, concentrating, a gentle breeze blowing through her dark hair.

Wait. Where is that breeze coming from?

Suddenly, I feel the air pressure change in the room. Six stands up from behind her barrier and thrusts her hands out towards Sarah and Ella. Ella is knocked backwards, somersaulting into the wall. Sarah falls back too, losing her grip on her blaster.

Before they’ve finished tumbling, Six is sprinting forward. Sarah reaches out to reclaim her blaster, but Six uses her telekinesis to send it skittering farther across the floor. Six jumps up, grabs the flag from the wall, and starts booking back to our side. “Go, Six!” I shout, feeling a swell of pride; no one else in here would make this distinction, but I think of me, John and Six as the originals competing against the newbies. And we’re winning!

As Six races back towards our side of the Lecture Hall, I keep my blaster leveled, ready to lay down cover fire.

Eight is too busy trying to outmaneuver both John and BK to notice Six making a break for it. Nine, however, sees it happening. He tosses aside a battered and exhausted- looking Five and rushes to meet Six in the middle of the floor. I’m willing Six to turn invisible as Nine barrels towards her. She doesn’t. In fact, it almost looks like she wants to take Nine on.

Nine swings first with a big overhand right hook that Six easily sidesteps. Quickly, she rabbit punches him twice in the side, then attempts to sweep his legs out from under him. Nine leaps over Six’s leg and grabs her wrist when she tries to hit him with a palm strike to the nose. With his free hand, Nine fires off a punch, but Six blocks the blow and hooks his arm. They grapple like that, each of them controlling one of the other’s arms. Six twists and struggles, but I can tell that Nine’s starting to overpower her.

For a moment, I’m frozen watching Six and Nine fight. I guess it’s just my natural instinct to stand back when the Garde do battle, whether against Mogs or each other. But then I realize that I’ve got a clear shot at Nine. His broad back presents a perfect target. I could end this game right now. With just one pull of the trigger, Nine will drop and Six will be home free to make it back to our side.

I line up my shot and fire.

I don’t know how he does it. Maybe it’s just my crappy luck. Nine spins Six around just as I fire. My blast hits Six in the back and she crumples, spasming, to the ground. The flag goes fluttering out of her grasp and Nine snatches it up.

“Six!” I yell, startled. “I’m sorry!”

I don’t even see Marina coming. Now is your chance, Marina. Go!

With Sam distracted, I sprint past him and grab their flag off the wall. He notices me just as I start running back to my side, keeping close to the wall. He tries to take aim at me but I rip the blaster out of his hands using my telekinesis. He won’t be a problem now. Five is laid out just a few yards away, looking groggy from tangling with Nine. He won’t be a problem, either.

It’s John and Bernie Kosar I have to worry about.

The two of them break away from Eight when they see me running with the flag. Eight quickly teleports into BK’s path, tackles him, and teleports with him to the other side of the room. That just leaves John.

Nine tries to intercept him but even though she’s barely shaken off the effects of the blaster shot, Six manages to jut her leg out and trip Nine up. That gives John a clear path towards me. I’m still wearing his bracelet, so he must know that shooting his fireballs at me won’t work. Instead, he makes a beeline to cut me off.

It’s disorienting at first, using the antigravity Legacy that Nine transferred to me at the start of the game. It’s odd to feel the world shift sideways as I run up the side of the wall, my feet landing where it should be impossible. John’s coming on so fast that he doesn’t have time to adjust and crashes into the wall beneath me.

I sprint across the ceiling to our home-base wall and drop back down to the floor, holding the flag aloft. Part of me can’t believe it, even when Malcolm blows a whistle signaling an end to the game. I did it. We won! “Damn,” I say, rubbing my head where it bounced off the wall. “Didn’t see that coming.”

I can’t help but smile as I watch Marina celebrate. Eight teleports across the room to wrap her in a big hug and Ella runs over to join in. Nine limps over to me, extending a hand.

“Good game, boss,” he says.

“Yeah, you too,” I say, clasping his hand. A couple weeks ago the idea of losing to Nine would’ve made me nuts. Now, it doesn’t seem to matter as much. The important thing is that both sides worked well together. The Legacies on display, the fighting skills, everyone watching one another’s backs—I know it’s only a game, but it makes me believe we can take on anything.

Nine steps away from me to go help Five back to his feet. Five looks pretty beat up, bruises all down the side of his face, one of his arms hanging limp at his side. Nine makes a show of brushing him off.

“No hard feelings,” Nine says, smirking.

“Yeah, sure,” Five replies sullenly.

I watch as Sam kneels down next to Six. She’s still shaking off the electric jolt of the blaster. I can tell Sam is feeling guilty.

“Six,” he begins, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

Six waves him off. “Forget it, Sam. It was an accident.”

“Not really,” interrupts Nine, strolling back over. “Ella warned me it was coming telepathically. That’s how I knew to turn you around.”

We all turn to look at Ella. Her face is flushed from the excitement. She looks healthier than she did when we started. And more awake.

As the others cross the room to congratulate Marina and get themselves healed, Malcolm strides over to me. He pats me on the back.

“Well done,” he says.

“Not exactly. We lost.”

Malcolm shakes his head. “That’s not what I meant. Well done bringing this all together. You know what I saw while watching all this, John?”

I look at Malcolm, waiting for an answer.

“A force to be reckoned with.”