Page 47 of The Fall of Five (Lorien Legacies 4)

“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.

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