Chapter Six
It was nearly ten thirty by the time the last of the group arrived at the end of Willow Street. Everyone had come empty-handed except for Tom who had a bulging backpack slung on one shoulder. When someone asked what it was for he simply said he’d brought some things he thought they might need.
Once they were all there they slipped behind the fat pine tree at the end of the block and carefully squeezed through the hole in the chain-link fence. They had agreed to walk to their destination because there was too much activity on the bridle paths at this time of day. Since Reed knew the area best he led the way again. They walked silently through the woods, their passage accompanied only by the sounds of the birds in the trees. After the revelations of the previous day, each of them was absorbed in their own private thoughts and no one wanted to disturb the reflective mood.
It wasn’t long before they found themselves coming to an open area. If it hadn’t been for Reed’s intimate knowledge of the woods they could have easily missed the clearing. Six dilapidated buildings were clustered in the open space. The structures were sitting on a rectangular patch of old, cracked blacktop. In spite of the size of the clearing there wasn’t much more light here than in the parts of the woods they had just walked through. Over the years the trees surrounding the clearing had grown, spreading their branches across much of the open space overhead to drink in the sunlight. The light that did filter through from above cast irregular splotches of brightness on the ground and buildings.
The group took in the scene as they stepped onto the crumbling edges of the blacktop. Four of the buildings were about the size of backyard sheds. These were too small for more than a few people to fit inside at once. The fifth was perhaps twice their size. But the last one was much larger. Four wide doorways that were large enough to admit a good-sized truck were on one side of the structure. Each of these had a roll-down metal door covering it and each door was secured with a rusted padlock.
Tom stepped up to a darkened window in the side of the building and cupped his hands to his face to peer inside. The inside of the building was too dark to reveal many details, but from what he could tell it appeared to be completely empty.
“These locks are in really poor shape,” Shay observed. “I don’t think anyone’s been here in years.”
Tom came around to the front and examined the locks. They were so badly rusted that he doubted they could be opened even if they had the keys.
“We’re not getting in through here,” Tom said.
“Why don’t we just break the window?” James suggested.
“Because we’re not going to cause any property damage,” Tom answered.
“Oh, come on, look at this place!” James said. “These buildings were abandoned years ago. Nobody’s going to care if a window gets broken.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tom said firmly. “We’re not going to break any windows to get in.”
“That’s vandalism,” Manny added. “They arrest people for that.”
“Besides,” Shay said, “a broken window could let animals and the weather in. The building won’t do us any good if rain gets in and ruins everything. And you really don’t want to surprise a family of raccoons if they get in and decide to turn it into their new home.”
“Fine. No breaking windows,” James grumbled. “So what’s our next option?”
“Everybody spread out and look around,” Tom said. “Maybe there’s another way in.”
A quick search of the building found only a single locked door on the side opposite the window. The back wall was completely blank.
“Well, this sucks,” Manny said when they all gathered back in front of the building. He looked up at the structure. Although the building was clearly only a single story, it had a high ceiling and was almost as deep as it was wide. “It looks like a really good-sized space. This would make a great place to work out.”
“Hey,” James said, “why doesn’t Tree just pop inside and let us in?”
Everybody turned to look at Dimitri, but he didn’t seem very comfortable with that plan.
“What’s wrong?” Tom said.
Dimitri cast a nervous glance at the building. “I never tried going through a solid wall before,” he said.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Shay said, sensing his mood.
“Sure it is,” James insisted. “What could happen?”
“I agree with James,” Reed said. “He’s only going a few feet. We’ve been all around the building and it’s closed up tight. This is the only way for us to get in. It’ll be easy.”
“I don’t know,” Magda said. “I think maybe Shay is right. This doesn’t feel like a good idea to me. We can find another way in.”
“But we already looked,” Danny pointed out. “Unless we’re going to break that window there is no other way in.”
“What about the roof?” Amanda suggested. “We didn’t try that yet. Maybe there’s a skylight or something.”
“Tom already looked inside,” James said. “If there was a skylight I think he would have seen it.”
Tom shook his head. “He’s right. I would have noticed if there was light coming through the roof. I didn’t see anything like that.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea either,” Paige said, siding with her sister. “We don’t know what he’ll run into in there.”
“Come on, guys!” James said impatiently. “This place has been locked up for years. There’s nothing in there.”
Dimitri looked around at the group as he tried to decide.
“Come on, Tree,” Reed said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”
“I’m not afraid,” Dimitri said. “I…it’s just that I’ve never done a blind jump before.”
“Hey, I thought we came out here to learn about our limits,” James said. “This seems like the perfect chance to test what you can do.”
Tom frowned at his cousin then turned to his best friend. “You don’t have to do this, Tree,” Tom said.
Dimitri looked around at the others again until his gaze came to rest on Shay. She seemed to be watching him with genuine concern in her eyes. That was when he made up his mind.
“It’s only a couple of feet,” Dimitri said as he squared his shoulders.
As he was getting himself ready Shay stepped up to him. “Are you sure you want to try this? Maybe we should just keep looking for another way in.”
Dimitri smiled and stood taller. “I’ll be fine. Tom already said the place is empty. I’ll just pop in on the other side of that door.”
Shay stepped back as Dimitri focused on the building. He was facing one of the roll-down doors, staring at it as if he were trying to see right through the steel. He balled his hands into fists, crouched slightly, and disappeared.
An instant later there was a loud crash from the building. Everyone spun around to see Dimitri standing pressed against the door, rigid as a statue.
Dimitri stepped back with one foot, turned part way around and sat down awkwardly.
“Oh my god! Dimitri!” Shay yelled as she rushed over to him.
“Ow,” he said as he grabbed his face with both hands.
“Well, that didn’t work,” James commented offhandedly.
Magda slapped his arm.
“What did I do?” James protested, but Magda ignored him.
Shay was kneeling beside Dimitri as he pressed his hands to his nose. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Dimitri said. “I think I kind of pulled the jump at the last second. It’s hard when I can’t see where I’m going. I’ll get it right next time.”
Shay gave him a horrified look. “I really don’t think you should try it again. We’ll find another way in.” She sat back on her heels and stared at the offending door. After a moment she looked up at Tom. “Why don’t you just pull open one of those locks,” she said.
“I told you I don’t want to vandalize anything.”
“And
I agree with you,” Shay said. “But think for a minute. Look at those locks. They’re ruined. The only way anyone’s going to get them off is to cut them off. If you can pull one of them open we can get in without having to break anything else and we can close the door when we leave so nothing can get inside.”
Tom stared at the lock for a moment. “I don’t know.”
“Look, whoever owns this place is going to have to break those locks to get them off anyway,” Shay said, “so we’re not doing anything they won’t have to do themselves.”
Tom thought it over for a moment then stepped up to the door and took the lock in hand. He gripped the heavy padlock and pulled. A moment later there was a soft clink as the shackle broke and the lock pulled opened. Tom opened his fingers and stared at his handiwork. He was still surprised at what he was able to do.
James crowded in next to him. “Nice!” James said. He took the lock from his cousin’s fingers and slipped it off the door. Squatting down James gripped the bottom of the roll-up door and tried to raise it. There was a loud squeal of metal as the door lifted a few inches and stopped.
“A little help would be appreciated,” James called.
Tom bent down and grabbed the edge of the door with one hand. Between the two of them they raised the door enough for everyone to step through without having to stoop. Sunlight spilled into the opening, allowing them to see inside the doorway. Tom and James froze as the others came up behind them. Just inside the door was a large pile of twisted metal bars. They had no idea what they were for but a number of them had sharp ends that were poking upward at different angles. As he stared at those sharp edges, Tom felt a chill. If Dimitri had appeared in the middle of that mass of twisted metal…
“Wow,” James said. “That could have been messy.”
Dimitri reached past them and ran his finger across the tip of one of the metal pieces.
Shay came up beside him and placed a hand on his arm. “I’m glad you didn’t—”
“Yeah. You and me both.”
“Well, at least it’s open now,” James said as he edged around the pile and stepped into the building.
The others followed. Apart from the metal bars piled in front of that one door the rest of the space was empty. Judging from the oil stains on the floor, Reed guessed that the building had at one time been a garage. A workbench ran along the entire back wall of the building but whatever tools and equipment had once been there had been removed long ago. Loops of heavy chain hung from a rolling pulley machine that ran along an overhead track. Above that was a series of metal domed lights that hung by cables from naked steel beams.
“Do you think the lights work?” Amanda said as she looked around uneasily.
Reed pointed toward the far side of the building. “It looks like there’s a switch by the door.” He walked across the room and flipped the switch but nothing happened.
“There is an active power supply in here,” Danny said as he looked around. “I can feel it.” Danny raised his hand as if he were feeling something in the air that the others couldn’t see, then started toward the back wall. At one end of the workbench there was a metal panel on the wall. He opened it and found a series of circuit breakers. A quick check showed that all of the breakers were in the on position, but the main switch at the top of the panel was off. He threw the main and the lights flickered and glowed on.
“They’re not very bright,” James said.
“They’re like the gym lights at school,” Reed said, looking up. “It probably takes a minute for them to come all the way on.”
Even as they were talking, the lights slowly brightened. Soon they could see the entire inside of the building.
“Close the door,” Tom said, gesturing to his cousin and Dimitri who were still standing beside the entrance. “We don’t want to draw attention to the fact that we’re in here.”
As James and Dimitri forced the door down, Tom walked over to the window he had looked through earlier. Louvered metal shutters were attached to the frame. It took him a moment to find the pull chain that operated the shutters and close them.
Turning back around he watched as his friends started to explore the space. Dimitri and James bent down to examine the metal pieces piled by the doorway they had entered through while the girls huddled together in the center of the space talking quietly among themselves. Reed and Danny made their way toward the back of the building and began poking around the workbench along the rear wall. After a moment Tom wandered over to where Danny, Reed and Manny were examining the workbench.
“There are a lot of power outlets,” Danny said. “I could set up some of my extra machines here.” Danny was always collecting old computers and other electronic devices to tinker with. His room at home was overflowing with piles of assorted machines in different states of repair. “Wow, there’s even an old land-line jack. There’re no hot spots around here but if that jack’s still connected I could access the Internet. Where’s the junction box?”
As Danny continued poking around the bench Tom stepped over to Reed to see what he was doing.
“This place used to be a full-service repair shop,” Reed said. He pulled open a draw beneath the workbench but found it empty. “Too bad they took everything with them.” He turned around and pointed toward the overhead pulley. “See those chains? With that system they could lift an engine completely out of a car and move it to any place in here to work on it. I could really use a set-up like this.”
Tom didn’t share Reed’s fascination with cars but he was happy to see his friend so excited. He gave him a clap on the shoulder and left him to finish exploring. Turning back to the middle of the room he saw the girls still standing there talking quietly among themselves.
“I think over by the window would be the best place,” Amanda was saying as Tom walked over to them. “We could use the light. It’s kind of creepy in here.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Tom said.
“We’re trying to figure out where we could put some chairs and maybe a table,” Magda said. “If we’re going to be spending any time in here we’re going to want to have a place to sit down. Maybe even a little fridge to keep water and snacks in, too. We were thinking over by the window would be a good spot so we could get some daylight.”
“We can’t open the shutters,” Tom said. “The whole idea is to keep people from knowing that we’re using this place, remember? Besides, aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves? Everybody’s acting like this is our personal clubhouse or something. We don’t own this building. It’s just supposed to be a convenient place for us to try out our powers.”
“Might as well be comfortable, bro,” James said as he and Dimitri wandered over to them.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this—again—but I agree with James,” Shay said.
“Wow, twice in two days,” Danny said as he and Reed rejoined the group. “You’re on a roll, James.”
James raised his chin and put an arm around Shay’s shoulders. “You’re just jealous because Shay likes me better than you.”
Shay looked down at James’ hand then looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. A moment later James dropped his arm.
“Anyway,” Shay said, “like I was saying, we’re going to want a spot to take a break after we finish working out. This concrete floor isn’t exactly comfortable. It’s hard, dirty and cold and I for one don’t want to ruin my clothes with grease.”
“I get tired when I jump a lot,” Dimitri added. “It’d be nice to have a place to sit down after a while.”
“And if I’m going to practice my skill, I need to set up some of my equipment here,” Danny said.
“That goes for me, too,” Reed said. “I need machines to practice on.”
Tom held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay. I give up. I know when I’m beat. But before we start picking out curtains let’s make sure it’s practical for us to even use this place.” He looked at Manny who was returning from
examining the door. “What do you think, Manny?”
“Well, we can lock the door from inside so no one can come in while we’re here,” Manny said. “The problem is going to be securing the place when we leave. We could just leave it unlocked so we can get back in again, but that means anyone else can get inside too. Since nobody’s used this place in years that shouldn’t be a problem, but I wouldn’t suggest we leave anything really valuable in here.”
“What if we could lock the door when we leave,” Reed said.
“What do you mean?” Tom said.
“Simple. I can put a padlock on the door to keep people out.”
“And who’s going to hold the key?” James said.
“I’ll make it a combination lock,” Reed said. “That way any of us can get back in whenever we want.”
“Assuming we can all remember the combination,” Danny said, grinning at James.
“Hey, that only happened that one time because my lock got busted and the school had to change my combination,” James said.
“Yeah, but wasn’t it you who broke the lock in the first place trying to open it?” Danny teased.
“Can I help it if the school got a bunch of cheap lockers?”
“Anyway,” Tom said, getting the conversation back on track, “unless somebody has a problem with Reed putting a padlock on the door we can try that and see how it works.” He slipped the backpack off his shoulder and set it down. Unzipping the bag he pulled out a football.
“So what do you want to do?” James asked. “Pick teams and play football?”
“Actually, that’s exactly what I thought we’d do,” Tom said as he dug in the bag and pulled out a handful of bandanas and began passing them out. “Flag football, with a twist. The object is to get the ball to your team’s goal. But unlike regular football, once play starts it doesn’t end until someone scores.” He paused and tucked one end his bandana into the back of his pants. “Okay, everybody put your tail on. If your flag gets pulled off you’re out of the game.”
“That’s it?” James said.
“That’s it,” Tom said. “I figure we’ll come up with more rules as we go.”
“Really? You want us to play football?” James asked. “I thought we were going to work on our powers.”
Tom rested his hands on his hips and looked around at his friends. “We are. Look, football is all about strategy. We’re going to need to be creative to go up against people with the abilities we have. So you’re allowed to use your powers during the game any way you can. Just try not to really hurt anybody. Now, who’s going to be the captains?”
It took a few minutes for them to decide on the team captains. Eventually they settled on Shay because she was the oldest, and Tom because he had experience as a team captain. Next they chose their teams. Tom allowed Shay the first pick and they alternated their selections until everyone had been chosen. In the end it was Shay, Amanda, Paige, James and Reed against Tom, Dimitri, Manny, Magda and Danny.
They decided to start the game by placing the ball in the center of the room. Areas at each end of the room were designated as goal zones and they were ready to begin. Play would start when the alarm on Danny’s phone went off.
Danny had just set his alarm for a ten-second countdown when Tom suddenly called time out.
“What’s wrong?” Manny said.
Tom frowned at his cousin and walked over to him. “Turn around.”
“Why?” James said, leaning away from him.
Tom folded his arms and gave him a stern look. “Turn around,” he insisted.
Grumbling to himself James slowly turned his back to his cousin.
“You can’t do that,” Tom said pointing at the lumpy bulge in the seat of James’ pants. James had stuffed his entire bandana down the back of his pants leaving just a tiny corner of the material sticking out.
“You only said I had to leave a little tail hanging out,” James protested. “You never said how much.”
“I guess we need to make our first rule then,” Tom said. “You need to leave at least six inches of flag hanging out.”
James grinned at him and pulled out more material. Tom grabbed the bandana and pulled out even more until there was a six-inch tail showing, then they each returned to their positions.
“Remember,” Tom said, “you can only score if you still have a tail. Once your flag is pulled you’re out and you have to get to the sidelines. If you have the ball when your tail is pulled you have to drop it right where you are. No passing to a teammate.”
Danny reset his alarm and ten seconds later the game began. Two seconds after that the first round was over. Before anyone else could move, Dimitri had popped to the center of the room, grabbed the ball, disappeared, and reappeared at his team’s goal.
“That’s not fair!” James protested.
“Sure it is,” Tom said. “The whole idea is to see how we can use our powers.”
“But—” James began.
“Forget it James,” Shay said. “It’s one-zip. Everybody huddle up for a second.” Shay’s team gathered around her for a few moments. When they were finished talking they spread out and took up their ready positions again. Dimitri had returned the ball to the middle of the room and his team was ready to go.
“You guys ready to get beat again?” Danny taunted.
“Just start your timer,” Shay shot back.
Ten seconds later Danny’s timer buzzed. Like before, Dimitri was the first to the ball. He snatched it up and disappeared again.
“Now it’s two-zip,” Tom said when Dimitri appeared on the far side of the room.
Shannon smiled. “I don’t think so.” She pointed to Amanda who flashed Tom a broad grin and dangled a bandana from her fingers. “She took Dimitri’s tail when he went for the ball.”
Across the room Dimitri began feeling behind his back for his bandana, which was no longer there.
“The goal doesn’t count and your man needs to drop the ball,” Shay said.
Tom nodded to Dimitri. “She’s right, Tree.”
Shaking his head, Dimitri placed the ball at his feet and started toward the back of the room. As soon as he put the ball down, Tom, Manny, Magda and Danny made a sudden dash for the far side of the room. But Shay’s team was ready. Shay, Paige, James, and Reed each moved to intercept one of the other team players, delaying them long enough for Amanda to act. While the others clashed in the middle of the room, Amanda reached out for the ball with her mind. Before anyone could get near it the ball rose high into the air and floated out of reach over their heads to the other side of the room.
“Now it’s one-all,” James announced.
Tom grinned. “Well played. Let’s go again.”
This time when the alarm sounded Amanda immediately sent the ball into the air at the same moment that Dimitri disappeared. But while her attention was focused on the ball, he had popped in behind her and removed her flag. Amanda was forced to let the ball drop which led to a mad scramble to recover it. The ball bounced closest to Tom who was just reaching to pick it up when Paige surprised everyone by diving across the space between them and scooping it up with one hand while she executed a one-armed handspring. She landed on her feet out of his reach and sprinted toward her team’s goal to score.
The game went on for half an hour. During that time the lead continued to shift back and forth between the teams. One side would develop a winning strategy and pull ahead by a few points until the other team came up with a way to counter that strategy and close the gap. Play continued back and forth in that vein for the rest of the game with neither team being able to build up more than a few points lead before the other team caught up with them again. Over the course of the game however they did learn several things about each other.
If Dimitri was able to get his hands on the ball—with his tail intact—the game was over. But they could stop him from teleporting by grabbing onto him when he popped in to get the ball. He also became tired very quickly if he used
his power too often, leaving him as slow and winded as if he had just run a marathon. Likewise, if Amanda could control the ball with her power she could easily score by making it float out of reach above their heads. But if someone else had possession of the ball she wasn’t strong enough to pull it from their grasp unless they were holding it very lightly.
One of her team’s favorite tactics for several rounds was for everyone to form a protective circle around Amanda while she manipulated the ball. By facing outward they could protect her and keep their own flags safe long enough for her to send the ball to their goal. But this tactic eventually revealed a flaw. Frustrated by the ease with which Amanda was able to keep the ball out of reach, Tom jumped after it one time and surprised himself and everyone else by leaping more than ten feet into the air to intercept the ball. Once he got his hands on the ball he was able to easily wrest it free from the invisible force holding it. And once he had the ball, Tom was a force to be reckoned with.
If Shay’s team got the ball to Paige she was able to evade the other team and bounce and flip her way across the room to score without anyone coming close to her. They scored several times using this tactic until Tom’s team eventually devised a defense against this strategy. They would interlock their arms and form a human wall, forcing her to go around them to one side. If they anchored one end of their line to a wall, they could force her to go around the other end. And since they knew where she would go, Dimitri was then able to pop in behind her to take her flag and relieve her of the ball.
Danny learned of a way he could use his ability to contribute to the group effort completely by accident. During one round he tried to stop the other team from scoring by reaching out with his ability and interrupting the power flow through the main breaker. His idea had been to plunge the building into sudden darkness. In his excitement however he formed such a strong connection with the energy flowing though the circuit box that he drew the power out of the box and across the room directly to him in the form of a web of lightning just as James was running past. While the current had little more effect on Danny other than causing him to tingle from head to toe, the raw power of the electricity blasted James right off his feet. He came to his senses moments later dazed and disoriented.
Manny was one person Shay’s team soon learned that they had to take out of play as quickly as possible. No matter who they got the ball to, if Manny was still in the game he could hijack that person’s will and make them do anything from handing off the ball to the other team to actually running it to the wrong goal. His biggest weakness was that he could not focus on more than one person at a time. While he was manipulating someone he was forced to concentrate on what he was doing to such an extent that he became completely unaware of his surroundings and was an easy target himself. It also became apparent that his concentration, and thereby his control over another person, could be interrupted by physically tackling him—something James relished doing whenever the opportunity presented itself, whether Manny was controlling someone or not.
After running himself ragged for several rounds by chasing after the ball and the members of the other team, Reed discovered that his talent could be brought into play as well. He realized that he could use his ability to move the overhead pulley machine. This gave his team what amounted to a mobile obstacle that he could quickly move to any part of the room. This forced everyone (except Dimitri) to dodge around the heavy loops of dangling chain or risk a painful collision.
For a long time it seemed that Magda’s ability would not play a part in their game. Since she had only ever been able to use her power by physically touching someone, there seemed to be no way she could participate other than by running around and trying to snatch the flag of an opposing player. She accepted her role cheerfully enough and put her best effort into running after the others. The concept of giving up wasn’t part of Magda’s personality and she tussled with people on the opposing team whenever she could catch them. And more often than not she wound up taking their flag through sheer determination. Then, in one game where she was the only one on her team who had not been eliminated, she found herself facing an extremely over-confident James who enjoyed having Magda chase after him. He would tease her with the ball and spin out of reach every time she tried to get to him. After chasing after him for a couple of minutes she found herself quickly getting worn out. Although he clearly had her at a disadvantage, James continued to tease her with the ball when it would have been a simple matter for him to get past her to score.
As the others shouted jeers or cheers and called for James to end the round, Magda became frustrated and finally stopped chasing after him. She glared at him and found herself wishing that he would just stop it. In that moment James’ expression drooped and he announced that he no longer felt like playing. He looked at the ball in his hands and let it fall from his fingers in disgust. At first Magda was as stunned as everyone else by James’ behavior. Then she realized that she had somehow caused the change in his attitude. Before whatever she had done wore off, Magda decided to take advantage of the situation. She quickly snatched up the ball and hurried toward the goal, laughing while her teammates cheered from the sidelines. Moments later James snapped himself out of his apathetic daze, but it was too late.
After half an hour of play only Shay and James had not been able to find a way to use their powers. As captain, Shay had been responsible for helping to plan a number of effective strategies her team was able to use against the other team while James was able to use his natural athletic ability to help. Although Shay accepted the fact that her ability with animals would not help them here, James was frustrated by not being able to use his power. Then, when they were setting up for what Tom had announced would be the last round before they would take a break, an idea came to him. A big grin grew on his face as he considered his idea. He had come up with a foolproof way to win not only the next round, but any future round they played as well.
The ball was placed in the center of the room for the start of the final round while both teams retreated to their respective sides to plan strategy. Shay pulled her team together and suggested that they let Amanda control the ball again while the others formed a protective wall around her. This time however, to prevent Tom from leaping up and intercepting the ball, Reed would send the pulley after him. With Tom busy dodging the swinging loops of chain, Amanda would be free to send the ball to their goal. It was a good plan, as long as Reed could keep Tom busy. James agreed with the plan but kept his own idea to himself. If anything went wrong he would have something up his sleeve that would ensure their victory.
Once each side had formulated their plans, both teams assumed their positions. When the alarm rang Amanda immediately sent the ball up toward the ceiling while the rest of her team formed a protective wall around her. At the same instant Reed sent the pulley zooming across the room directly at Tom. But at the last moment Tom leapt to one side just as the rattling loops of chain reached him. An instant later he leaned in to grab a fist full of the metal links and hold on to the pulley. The pulley struggled to pull free of Tom’s grip, but he just smiled at Reed and held tightly to the struggling chains. Meanwhile, Danny, Magda and Manny charged for the tightly packed group surrounding Amanda as Dimitri disappeared. An instant later Dimitri reappeared in mid-air and wrapped his arms around the ball. He had been using his power a lot during the last few rounds and he was too tired to teleport again, but it wasn’t necessary. Keeping a firm grip on the ball, Dimitri let himself drop to the floor. Once he landed he started toward the far side of the room in a slow, loping jog. With Tom holding the pulley immobile and Shay’s team clustered together around Amanda, all Dimitri needed to do was hold on to the ball and get it to their goal.
Dimitri had barely started toward his team’s goal when James yelled out, “No!”
An instant later there was an explosion. Dimitri was hurtled backward from the power of the blast and ended up sitting in the middle of the floor looking dazed. The football wa
s nowhere in sight. Tom called for time out and they all rushed to check on Dimitri who turned out to be more confused than hurt.
“What happened?” he asked as the others gathered around him.
“I don’t know,” Tom said as he reached down and gave him a hand up. “Where’s the ball?”
“I have no idea,” Dimitri said, rubbing a hand across his stomach. “One second I’m holding onto it, the next thing I know something kicked me in the gut and knocked me on my butt.”
Once he saw that his friend was okay Tom started looking around for the ball. A moment later he found what appeared to be a shredded piece of his ball on the floor. He picked it up carefully and turned it over to examine it. It was strangely warm to the touch.
“Is that the ball?” Manny asked as he watched Tom study the ragged scrap he was holding.
“I think so, but I have no idea what happened to it.”
Just then James started laughing hysterically.
“What did you do?” Tom said.
“I’m sorry,” James said when he could finally catch his breath. “I didn’t know that would happen.”
“Can I see that?” Shay asked Tom. He handed her the scrap he had found.
“What did you do?” Tom repeated.
“I just wanted to keep you guys from controlling the ball,” James said. “I figured if it was too hot for anyone to hold Amanda could float it to our goal and we would get the point.”
“You flash heated the ball,” Shay said, looking up from the scrap in her hand.
“Well, yeah,” James said. “I figured Dimitri would drop it if it was too hot.”
Shay shook her head. “But it was full of air.”
“So?”
“Gas dynamics,” Shay said. When she saw the confused looks she was getting from the others she explained. “When you flash heat a gas it expands—very fast! That’s why explosives work. An explosion is really just rapidly expanding gases that put stress on a container until it ruptures. You heated the air inside the ball so much that it expanded too fast for the ball to contain and it exploded.”
“Really?” James said, sounding pleased with himself.
Magda slapped his arm. “It’s not funny James! Dimitri could have been really hurt.”
It suddenly got very quiet.
“But I’m okay,” Dimitri said, trying to break the tension.
“See, nothing happened,” James said. “Anyway, it was an accident.”
“Actually, it was kind of funny,” Tom said. He looked up at Dimitri. “You should have seen the look on your face when you went flying.”
Dimitri smiled and soon there were snatches of giggles coming from the others.
“Okay, so what have we learned?” Tom said.
“Not to play football with James,” Danny said.
“Well, that and James can blow things up,” Tom said. He looked at his cousin and his voice took on a serious tone. “You need to be really careful with that.”
James saw the expression on his cousin’s face and for once didn’t have a snappy comeback. Instead he just nodded.
“And by the way,” Tom said, “you owe me a new football. That was my Wilson official NFL ball.”
“Oh, come on!” James said. It would cost more than a hundred dollars to replace that ball. He had no idea where he was going to get that kind of money.
“I’ll tell Aunt Marian,” Tom said. He knew that James was still in the dog house with his mom over another stunt he had pulled recently that wound up breaking one of their living room lamps. James grumbled but didn’t object.
“Okay, I think we’ve gotten a pretty good idea of how we can combine our abilities and work together as a team,” Tom said. “Now I think we should try to stretch ourselves individually. There’s this drill I know where—”
“Um, before we start something else,” Dimitri said, “do you mind if we take a little break first? I don’t know about anybody else but I’m wiped.” He looked around briefly, then picked a relatively clean place on the floor and sat down.
“Yeah, sorry,” Tom said. “Take five, everybody.”
One by one the rest of the group found places to sit. As the others claimed their own spots on the floor Tom retrieved his backpack from the workbench and began handing out bottles of water. When the last of the water had been handed out he plopped himself down beside the others.
“I see what you girls mean about needing a place to sit down,” Tom said as he tried to find a comfortable position on the unyielding cement. “This floor is a little hard on the butt.”
“You know,” James said as he gestured with his hands toward a spot on the wall, “a big screen TV right there and some microwave popcorn and this place might not be so bad.”
“I don’t know about cable,” Danny said, “but if I can hook us up to the Internet I know a bunch of sites I can stream videos from.”
“Now you’re talking,” James said. “Hey, do you know any good sites? You know the ones I mean.”
Danny’s face lit up. “There’s this one site I know called—”
“Hey guys!” Manny said, nodding toward the girls.
“It’s okay,” Magda said. “We know what they’re talking about.”
James put on a hurt expression. “How could you say such a thing? I was asking Danny about religious sites.” He placed a hand over his heart and looked up toward the heavens.
Magda let out a guffaw. “Yeah, right!”
“Anyway,” Manny said turning to Tom, “you were going to tell us about this drill you wanted us to try. What did you have in mind?”
“Well, in wrestling, Coach Griffin used to have us do this thing called ‘bull in the ring’,” Tom said. “One person is in the middle and everyone else makes a circle around them. Then the coach calls someone and those two wrestle until one person gets taken down. Whoever wins gets to stay in the ring and someone else gets called.”
“Don’t you think this is a little hard to wrestle on?” Reed said, patting the floor beside him.
“And what about the girls,” Manny said. “I don’t think we should be wrestling against them.”
“Let’s not be too hasty,” James said. “After all it is the twenty-first century. Equality between the sexes and all that.” He looked pointedly at Magda and wiggled his eyebrows.
“You wish,” Magda said. “Besides, I could tie you in a knot if I wanted to.”
“Oooh, you know I like the rough stuff,” James said.
“Actually, that’s not exactly what I had in mind,” Tom said. “I just figured we’d try to take the other person’s flag.”
James shrugged. “That works, too. It could still lead to a bit of wrestling around.” He winked at Magda who sighed and shook her head.
Ignoring his cousin, Tom fished in his pocket and pulled out the ten-sided die he had borrowed from his dad’s old Dungeons & Dragons game.
“To make it fair we’ll let the dice pick who goes next,” Tom said.
They climbed to their feet and each of them was assigned a number. Next, Tom directed everyone to form a large circle. Once they were in place, Tom rolled the die. Paige’s number came up first and she stepped into the center. The next roll brought up Tom’s number. No one seemed to notice the close attention Amanda was paying to the roll of the die. As Tom stepped into the ring Amanda hid a half smile behind her hand.
“Ready?” Tom asked. Paige just smiled in response.
Tom stepped forward confidently. Paige continued to smile and circled to her right. Tom bent into a wrestling crouch and shuffled toward her with his hands outstretched. He was just reaching toward her when Paige dove aside and executed a shoulder roll out of reach. Tom spun around and lunged after her. He dropped to his knees and slid in to grab her legs to immobilize her but Paige leapt up, did a back flip, and landed directly behind him. She was just reaching for his flag when Tom spun around suddenly, sweeping his arm behind him to brush her hand away. As he reached for her again Paige twirled away
, laughing.
Tom sprang back to his feet and they resumed circling. He noticed that Paige appeared to be flushed with excitement. Her eyes had started to take on an intense look he hadn’t seen before. It was almost like the expression people got when Manny was controlling them, like she was off somewhere else, only different somehow. He also couldn’t help noticing how cute she looked with her curls falling across her face, but pushed those thoughts down.
Focusing his attention on winning the match, he came at her again. But before he could grab her Paige cartwheeled out of the way. Again and again he lunged after her and each time she managed to evade him with a complex series of acrobatic moves.
Around them the others were cheering and shouting encouragement. Tom was so in the zone that he didn’t pay any attention. Instead, he found himself studying Paige’s movements as he tried to analyze what she was doing. So far she had been using a purely defensive strategy. He realized that she wouldn’t let him approach any closer than four feet before she would move away. That gave him a range to work with. And although she had quick reflexes, she wasn’t superhuman fast. He thought he might have a chance to trap her if he could back her into a corner, but they were inside a circle. He could force her to back away from him but when she decided to dodge away from him he had no way of knowing which direction she would go in. The only thing he knew for sure was that it would be the direction he was least able to guard.
Then it hit him. If he could force her to move in the direction he wanted her to go in he would have a chance to catch her. It was just like in the game when his team made themselves into a wall and forced her to go around them to one side. Although he couldn’t teleport like Dimitri, he could be ready to lunge after her if he knew the direction she would move in.
Just like that a plan came to him. He forced himself not to smile as he closed the distance between them and lunged at her again. Just like before she danced away at the last moment. And just like before he followed after her and doggedly tried again. And again.
“Boooring!” Tom heard James shout behind him. “Come on Tom, just give up and admit that you got beat by a girl.”
Tom ignored the taunting and continued to lunge after Paige. Again and again he grabbed for her, and each time she sprang out of reach at the last moment. It was when he had manipulated her into backing to within a few feet of the ring that he made his move. He feinted toward her with his right hand then threw himself to the left instead. Up to this point he had been careful to come after her only with his right hand, leading her to expect that this was his dominant side. What Paige didn’t know was that he had trained himself to be equally good with both hands when he played sports and had used this on more than one occasion to fake out an opponent.
As soon as she sensed Tom coming at her Paige sprang to her right, throwing herself into a dive that would take her out of his reach. But the instant her feet left the floor she realized Tom’s deception. Instead of coming straight at her as he had been doing, he had thrown himself to one side at the last moment, placing him directly in her path. Her sixth sense allowed her to realize that there was no way to avoid colliding with him. With her feet off the ground there was nothing she could do. Gravity and physics would take over from here.
In the next instant she found herself being wrapped in his arms. But while she could do nothing to avoid him grabbing her, she could still turn the situation to her advantage.
As soon as he grabbed her, Paige tucked her body into a tight ball and squirmed and twisted in his grip. To Tom it felt like he had grabbed hold of a wildcat. He tried to hold onto her while not squeezing her too tightly, all the time wondering if this had been such a good idea after all.
That little bit of leeway was all Paige needed. As they tumbled to the floor, she twisted just enough in his grip to bring her knees up between their bodies. Then, using the combined momentum of their fall, she pulled them into a backward roll and as soon as she sensed they were in the right position she kicked out with her feet. Using the strength of her legs she shoved him away from her. Tom lost his grip on her and went sailing through the air upside down directly at Magda and Amanda. Seeing Tom come flying in their direction, the girls threw themselves to the floor just in time for him to go soaring over them.
To Tom it seemed as if he was flying through the air for a long time. Then he sensed the floor rushing up toward him. From the corner of his eyes he saw that he was headed directly toward the pile of twisted metal bars. This realization dawned on him an instant before he crashed down.
Meanwhile, Paige completed her backward roll and sprang to her feet just as Tom landed in the pile of metal bars with a crash. She hadn’t realized the direction she had thrown him in and once she saw where he had wound up she came back to her senses.
“TOM!” she screamed as she felt the blood drain from her face.
She sprinted toward where he lay sprawled amid the twisted metal bars. A moment later she came to a stop as she brought her fists to her mouth, horrified by what she saw.
Tom lay sprawled on his back, his teeth bared in a grimace. Beneath him a red puddle was slowly growing. And poking through his shirt was the pointed end of one of the metal bars which had gone completely through his stomach.
Seconds later the rest of the group joined her and for a moment they all stood frozen in shock. Manny was the first one to act.
“Help me!” he said to the others as he grabbed Tom by one arm. The other boys reached to help and a few moments later they had pulled him off of the bar that had impaled him.
“Stop!” Shay called out when she realized what they were doing. “You can’t move him!”
The boys hesitated, holding Tom’s limp form awkwardly between them.
“But we need to get him help,” Manny said, sounding confused.
Shay placed a hand on Tom’s chest to keep them from carrying him away. “No! We don’t know how seriously he’s been injured.”
“We know he got stabbed through the gut by that metal pipe,” James argued.
“I know he’s your cousin,” Shay said, trying to make her voice stay level and rational, “but we don’t know what else is wrong with him. What if he hurt his spine? If we move him we could end up crippling him.”
“But he could bleed to death if we don’t do something,” Dimitri said.
“That metal bar was actually helping to keep the wound closed,” Shay explained. “Now that you pulled him off of it there’s nothing to stop him from hemorrhaging.”
Dimitri’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. “We didn’t know! We were trying to—”
“I know,” Shay said. “You were just trying to help your friend. But right now you need to put him down and help me keep him immobilized until we can stop the bleeding.”
Following Shay’s instructions the boys lowered Tom to the floor. Looking into his face Shay saw that he was very pale and seemed to be unconscious. That was a bad sign. He had also begun to hyperventilate, his breaths coming in short, rapid puffs. She quickly pulled up his T-shirt, exposing the wound. It was difficult to see the puncture because of all the blood on his stomach. Shay reached back and yanked her bandana from her waistband.
“Give me your bandanas!” Shay said as she pressed the cloth to his stomach. “I need something to stop the bleeding.”
In seconds their bandanas were thrust in her direction. Shay grabbed several more of the cloths and started wiping away the excess blood so she could see exactly where to apply pressure. A moment later she saw a small hole a few inches to the right of his belly button where blood was slowly oozing out. She hesitated for an instant as her brain told her that something was wrong. It took her a few moments to realize that the wound was smaller than it should be. It also wasn’t bleeding nearly as much as it had been. Tossing aside the bandana she had been using, she took a clean one and wiped away more blood. Incredibly, the wound had stopped bleeding.
“Look!” Paige said.
As they all watched, the wound slowl
y closed itself. It took nearly a minute for the wound to fully heal but eventually there was only a faint, pink mark where the gaping hole had been. Shay brushed across the area again, wiping away the last of the blood and making certain that the wound had indeed healed.
“What the…” James said as he stared open mouthed at his cousin’s belly.
“Help me roll him over,” Shay said. With James’ and Manny’s help they managed to roll Tom onto his side. Grabbing several more bandanas Shay began cleaning blood from his back. Just as they had seen before the wound had begun to shrink. Moments later the hole in his back closed itself just like the one in his stomach had done. Shay looked up into the faces of the others standing around her and saw her own shocked expression mirrored there.
They rolled him gently to his back again and for several moments no one could think of anything to say. As they watched, Tom’s breathing began to slow and deepen as color gradually returned to his face. A minute later his lids fluttered and he opened his eyes.
“What happened?” he asked weakly as his eyes focused on the scene around him.
“We thought you were going to die,” Dimitri said.
Tom looked down at the hole in his blood soaked shirt and pressed a hand to his stomach.
“It doesn’t hurt anymore,” Tom said, sounding surprised himself.
“That’s because the hole in your stomach just closed up all by itself,” Shay said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Tom pushed himself up into a sitting position. He was feeling much stronger now. “I feel fine. It’s like it never happened.”
Paige dropped to her knees and grabbed him in a fierce hug. “I’m so sorry! I never meant for you to get hurt! I didn’t think about where I was throwing you! If I had known I never would have—”
“It’s okay,” Tom said, brushing her hair out of his face. “I know it was an accident. Anyway, everything turned out okay. I’m fine.”
Paige let go of him and sat back. “But you could have died! I would never have forgiven myself if something had happened to you.”
“Yeah, dude,” James said. “That was incredible. How long have you been able to do that, anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Tom said, sounding genuinely confused himself. “I never got hurt before.”
“What do you mean you never got hurt before?” Danny said. “Everybody gets hurt sometimes.”
Tom shook his head. “Not me. I guess I’ve just been lucky.”
“You mean in all the years you’ve been playing football you never once got hurt?” Manny said. “No broken bones? No pulled muscles? No twisted ankles? Nothing?”
“No.”
“How about getting sick?” Shay asked. “Did you ever get the flu? Ever had a headache?”
Tom shook his head again. “I never really thought about it before but I’ve never been sick either.”
“That you know of,” Shay said. “If you’ve always been able to heal like that it’s likely that you could have injured yourself or been exposed to something and healed again before you realized it.”
Tom shrugged. “I suppose.”
James reached down and gave his cousin a hand up. “Well, I’m just glad you’re okay. Your mom would have killed me if anything happened to you.”
“It’s nice to know you care,” Tom said.
James grinned and shrugged.
“I don’t know about anybody else,” Manny said, “but I’ve had enough training for a while.”
A murmur of agreement went through the others. Tom picked up his empty backpack and looped it over one shoulder as they headed toward the door.
“Anybody mind if we stop for something to eat?” Tom said. “I’m starving all of a sudden.”
“You must have used up a lot of calories healing yourself like that,” Shay said. “Your metabolism had to be working overtime.”
“All I know is that I could really use a double cheeseburger,” Tom said.
They collected the few possessions they had brought with them and headed for the exit. Reed held the door for the others and turned off the lights when everyone else had filed out, then closed the door behind them.
Chapter Seven