“Impressive,” Dr. Brooks’s magnified voice boomed at them from speakers hidden within the room. “In spite of all the people I have searching for you, you managed to evade detection and make your way completely across the facility.”
As Dr. Brooks spoke to them they felt vulnerable, exposed. They wanted to run but without a clear direction to go in the teens instinctively arranged themselves in a defensive circle. Shay, Danny, Reed, and Magda held their weapons at the ready while the others stood with their fists raised protectively. It was like they were back in the clubhouse again, practicing with their powers. Only this time the stakes were real.
“Ironically,” Dr. Brooks continued conversationally, “this is the very room where I was planning to bring you to test your abilities. The room you so conveniently made your way into is a special training facility that we call the Arena. As you will soon discover, this room has been constructed with a number of surprises designed to test you under combat conditions. It was originally used to test the abilities of the first generation of Theta Troopers—the supersoldiers, as you so quaintly dubbed them, Thomas. They proved remarkably effective against the different scenarios we arranged for them here. Hopefully, you will do as well.”
“Screw you!” James yelled.
Dr. Brooks laughed. “That’s the spirit, son. Keep that attitude. You’re going to need it.”
The door that had locked behind them gave a deep, metallic clang as the locking bolts withdrew. A moment later the door began to swing slowly open.
“Although my original plan had been to test each of you individually,” Dr. Brooks said as the group turned to face the slowly opening door, “I see no reason why the testing should not proceed with you as a group.”
The door was now open wide enough for a person to step through. Magda dropped to one knee and pulled the rifle to her shoulder as she sighted at the door. Shay widened her stance and held the pistol out before her, using her free hand to steady her gun hand. Danny and Reed held the stocks of their weapons tucked into their sides, ready to spray the first thing through the door, while the rest of their group spread out to face whoever entered.
A few moments later they saw something move into the room. It was smaller than a person, low to the ground, and moved with a slightly jerky gait. They soon realized that it was one of the Dobermans. Then immediately behind the first dog they saw the second one enter the room. Shay was suddenly agitated at the appearance of the dogs.
“What did you do to them?” Shay yelled angrily. She could sense their distress.
The dogs weren’t moving with the same graceful lope they had displayed before. Now their motions jerky and hesitant. Then, as a pair of guards appeared in the door behind the dogs, they could see the reason. Each of the men was holding one the dogs at the end of a lengthy animal control pole. The cable around each dog’s neck prevented them from moving freely while the men were able to remain at a safe distance from the animals’ teeth and claws. To protect them from the armed teens, the guards were wearing body armor. Once the men had come completely into the room, the door started to swing shut behind them, closing off any possibility of escape.
“For some reason, my men appear to have lost control of these animals,” Dr. Brooks said. “Several guards have actually been attacked by the dogs, who have suddenly become quite vicious.” The trainers loosened the cables and slipped the loops off the dogs’ heads. Then they each reached to their side and pulled free a short baton, extending them with a quick flick of the wrist to nearly to two feet in length.
Now free of the poles, the dogs lowered their heads and faced the teens.
“My trainers feel that the dogs need to be reminded of their role within our organization. They are of the opinion that they will respond to live combat training, and so I have had them bring the dogs to you.” The dogs continued to stare at the group of teens. “For myself, I have another theory about the reason for their sudden change in demeanor. We are about to test that theory. Regardless, I believe you will find them to be an adequate warm-up exercise. We will see how you fare against them before we continue with other tests.”
Shay slowly lowered her pistol and took a step forward. She and the dogs stared at each other.
“Zeus, Apollo, kill!” one of the trainers commanded. The dogs did not move. When they failed to act after several moments, the trainer who had given the command stepped toward the dogs and struck the nearest one on the flank with his baton.
“Kill!” he repeated.
In a flash, both dogs spun around and leapt on the trainers, driving both men to the floor. The protective clothing that would shield them from gunfire proved to be of little use against the dogs’ fangs. For several seconds the sounds of the men’s screams echoed in the room along with the sound of tearing flesh. For a while the men tried to ward off the attack with their batons but the dogs quickly caught the batons in their jaws and yanked them out of their grasp. The fight soon ended with sickening gurgling noises when the dogs’ teeth found their way to the soft throat tissues.
In less than half a minute the trainers’ struggling ceased. Red puddles began to spread beneath them. As their bodies gave a few last twitches, each dog bent to retrieve something from the floor. Zeus picked up one of the animal control poles, balancing its length in his powerful jaws like an oversized fetch stick, and padded proudly over to Shay. Apollo brought her a smaller prize, something he could easily carry in his mouth. As both dogs sat in front of Shay, Zeus presented her with his prize while Apollo dropped his offering at her feet: a finger.
Shay hid her disgust as she bent to pet both dogs affectionately, carefully avoiding their bloody muzzles.
“Good boys,” she said over and over. The dogs drummed their tail stumps against the floor. After a while she straightened and turned to face the far side of the room, looking up at the windows to the observation room. The lights in the room were on now and they could see Dr. Brooks standing there watching them. Over his shoulder they could see the unmistakable silhouette of his second in command, Ramona.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” Shay yelled.
It was several moments before Dr. Brooks spoke. “As I surmised, you have the ability to command creatures other than just birds,” Dr. Brooks said. His tone gave no indication that he had the slightest concern for the two men who had been killed.
The rest of the group had just turned to face the observation room as well when Paige suddenly threw herself backward. She performed a back handspring and landed lightly on her feet in a guarded pose. The others looked at her.
“What was that for?” Manny said.
“Something almost hit me!” Paige said, looking around frantically.
Just then Tom grunted and grabbed his shoulder. He frowned as he saw something sticking out of his arm. Wincing, he pulled a small, serrated disk from his shoulder. It was about two inches in diameter and had buried itself halfway into the muscles of his shoulder. The others could see the glint of metal where the disk wasn’t covered with blood.
“They’re shooting at us!” Matt said suddenly. His head snapped around, “Danny, duck!”
Danny dropped into a low crouch just as something streaked through the space where he had been. This time they could hear the low buzzing of the disk’s passage through the air as it sped past.
Matt wheeled around. “Reed!…Manny!” The boys threw themselves to the floor at Matt’s warning. Manny escaped injury but Reed cried out and reached for his right cheek where he had received a shallow cut from a glancing blow.
“Amanda, can you help?” Tom asked.
Amanda raised her hands, looking all around. “Where is it coming from?”
Matt pointed at the wall to their right. They saw that a panel had opened halfway up the wall and a gun barrel was pointed at them. It was not round but appeared oval when viewed on end, with a narrow slit of an opening.
“They’re controlling it from the observation room,” Matt explained, then he called out, “Magda!…Shay!??
?
Amanda flicked her fingers and they could see brief flashes in the air as she deflected the flying blades. For the next minute Matt continued to call out the names of the intended targets and Amanda deflected the shots. Then Matt hesitated, a surprised look on his face. He turned to Amanda.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I can’t hear them anymore,” Matt said, his voice revealing his growing panic.
“So that is your ability,” Dr. Brooks’s voice spoke to them. “You did well to keep it hidden from me, Matthew, but as you can see, it was ultimately a useless effort. As for you, Amanda, I am quite impressed with you as well.”
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” Amanda said through clenched teeth. Stretching a hand out toward Tom she used her telekinetic power to take the small disk from his fingers. Then she whipped her arm and launched it directly at Dr. Brooks. She fired off the disk with so much force that even from a distance of more than fifty yards they heard the clink as it ricocheted from the window like a bullet.
“The glass is reinforced, sweetheart,” Dr. Brooks said as he tapped the window with his finger. “And as to the reason for the sudden failure of your ability, Matthew, it is because I have erected a barrier against you. You see, our tests with the first generation of Theta Troopers revealed a weakness to electromagnetic fields. While most of the original test subjects developed only physical enhancements, a small number also displayed abilities similar to those developed by your group, although I will accede not as formidable. In time we discovered that those abilities failed in the presence of strong electromagnetic fields. This entire observation room is surrounded by a conductive mesh that has now been energized. Even the glass of the windows is impregnated with fine wires that allow us to send a current through it, making it quite impervious to your powers.” He stopped speaking and gestured to someone beside him. They could see the heads of several technicians who were seated on either side of Dr. Brooks.
“I don’t like this,” Tom said when the silence had gone on for a while.
Manny was the one who noticed the motion of the gun barrel as it swung toward Amanda.
“Look out!” he yelled as he threw himself at her.
Searing pain knifed into his back as he tackled Amanda to the floor and he knew that he had been hit by one of the flying disks. In spite of the pain Manny pushed himself to his hands and knees, keeping his body between Amanda and the gun barrel.
Amanda gasped when she saw the look of pain on his face and guessed what had happened.
“I’m okay,” Manny gasped. “Stay down.”
“But you’re hurt!” Amanda said.
Before Manny could protest Amanda wriggled out from beneath him and scrambled to place herself between Manny and the gun. There was a series of flashes from the gun as it resumed firing, the barrel moving rapidly from side to side as it switched its aim between targets. Without Matt being able to tell her who the gun was aiming at she could only guess where the disks would be. As the rest of the group dodged and weaved erratically in an effort to evade the projectiles, Amanda did her best to deflect every one that she could. Then, as she concentrated, she began to find it was getting easier to locate the blades as they sped through the air. Energy seemed to flow into her and she found that she could actually sense the dangerous projectiles despite their speed. Soon she was batting them aside with no trouble.
This went on for a while until the gun suddenly increased its rate of fire. Whereas before the gun had been firing off the disks one at a time, it now began loosing several at a time in short bursts.
“It’s too fast!” Amanda said as she struggled to keep up. “I can’t stop them all.”
Around her the others were jumping about madly, trying to evade the dangerous hail being sprayed at them. Most of them were dodging erratically from side to side, trying to make it difficult for the gun operator to track them. Even the dogs where running in circles. Paige continued her acrobatic ballet, leaping into the air and contorting her body to evade the disks. Dimitri was teleporting rapidly from place to place, disappearing and reappearing in the blink of an eye. And all of them were quickly tiring.
Suddenly, Tom stopped moving. “Everybody, line up on me,” he shouted as he turned his back to the gun.
Paige realized what he had in mind. “But Tom, you can’t—”
“Do it!”
The group scrambled to line up behind him. As they assembled, Tom motioned them down into a squatting position to further reduce their profile. Following their example, the dogs crouched down at the end of the line as Shay communicated what they were doing. They huddled together, each of them pulling themselves close to the person in line ahead of them. As they got into position, Tom winced several times as a number of the flying blades buried themselves in his back.
“You can’t protect all of us,” Paige said as she looked up into his face. She was the first one in line and she saw him react every time he was hit. Tears began running down her cheeks as she watched his face contort with each hit.
“Oh, Tom…”
“Everybody stay close and come with me,” Tom said. Hunching his shoulders Tom ducked his head and looked down at the floor behind him as he began shuffling backwards. He moved slowly so that the rest of the group could stay in line, making his way steadily toward Amanda and Manny.
“Amanda, if we all line up behind you will that make it easier for you to deflect those things?” Tom asked as he shuffled up behind her and Manny.
Amanda was on her knees with her hands raised defensively toward the gun.
“Maybe,” she answered, her fingers flicking rapidly as she deflected the blades coming at her. “At least I’ll know where the blades are going.”
“She can’t keep blocking forever!” Manny said from where he was huddled on the floor behind her.
“She won’t have to,” Tom said. “Reed, can you—”
Just then the sound from the gun changed. Every time the gun had fired before they could hear a muffled pop. Until now there had always been a detectable pause between shots, even after the firing rate increased. No more. In an instant the sound became a continuous, rapid fire stream. They had switched the gun to full auto.
Amanda felt her heart leap into her throat as she tried to deflect the stream of projectiles streaking toward her. She quickly found herself being overwhelmed and felt several of the flying blades starting to slip past her guard.
Then she heard a gasp. One of the blades had imbedded itself in Manny’s shoulder. He grunted as his arm failed him and he collapsed onto his face.
Fear and anger exploded inside her. Somehow she tapped into a reserve of strength she had not known was there. Channeling the energy through her body she projected the power before her. Instead of trying to deflect each blade one at a time she somehow erected a barrier between herself and the gun. The stream of disks rebounded from the invisible shield, scattering like drops of rain against an umbrella.
“If you’re going to do something,” Amanda called over her shoulder, “do it now!”
“Reed,” Tom called. “The gun, it’s a kind of machine, right? Jam it!”
For a moment Reed couldn’t believe that it had never occurred to him that he might be able to affect the gun. He reached out with his sense and felt for the gun mechanism. It was a lot simpler than he expected it to be. He studied it briefly then prepared to make a minute adjustment. He had to wait for just the right moment to—now!
Although Reed had little experience with guns, the technical term for what he did was called a stovepipe. If one of the rounds in a gun failed to eject properly, it created an obstruction in the barrel that prevented other rounds from being fired. This type of misfire could result in anything from the weapon simply jamming to an explosion.
In this case the teens heard a loud bang in the wall followed by a cloud of smoke billowing through the open panel as the gun abruptly stopped firing.
Amanda held her barrier in place for several more
moments to be sure that the gun was in fact out of commission. When the shooting did not resume after a while she dropped the barrier and slumped forward onto her hands, exhausted. She stayed on all fours for several moments, allowing her strength to slowly return, then turned around to check on Manny. Manny had pushed himself up with his uninjured left arm and was reaching for her.
“Are you okay?” Manny asked as she turned to him. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Amanda nodded. “Me either,” she said. She ran her fingers gingerly along his shoulder where the flying blade had injured him. Manny had already removed the serrated disk, leaving an ugly wound in his shoulder that was still bleeding. Leaning forward, she looked down his back to where the second disk was still imbedded in his flesh. Blood welled up around the disk, seeping into the material of his shirt.
“I need to get that thing out of your back,” she said.
Manny nodded.
Amanda gripped the exposed part of the disc with her fingers and looked at Manny.
“Do it,” he said.
Amanda gritted her teeth and yanked the disk free. Manny grimaced but didn’t cry out. Amanda slipped off one of her sneakers and tugged off her sock. Balling up the sock she pressed it to the wound in his back to staunch the bleeding.
As Amanda was tending to Manny, Tom sank to his knees.
“Can somebody please help me get these things out of my back,” Tom said.
Paige sprang up and hurried around to examine him. More than a dozen of the serrated disks were imbedded in Tom’s back and he had at least as many cuts on his sides and arms as a result of glancing hits. The entire back of his shirt was red with blood.
Paige clapped a hand over her mouth as she stood looking at his back, uncertain what she should do.
“I don’t know what—”
“Just pull them out,” Tom said.
Paige knelt down and hesitantly grabbed a disk.
“It actually doesn’t hurt that much anymore,” Tom said. “I think I’m already starting to heal. But I can feel them slicing into me every time I move. They need to come out.”
Paige steeled herself and yanked the disk free. Tom spasmed slightly but that was all.
“One down,” Paige said.
“Ninety-nine to go,” Tom added.
As Paige reached for another disk, James, Danny, and Reed joined her.
“Hold still,” James said as he grabbed one of the disks. He and the others began yanking the flying blades out of Tom’s back as quickly as they could. Tom gave a low grunt each time one of the disks was pulled out but within half a minute the last of them had been removed. Paige lifted his shirt and stared at his back. The wounds had stopped bleeding and were already beginning to close.
Tom slowly pushed himself to his feet. Experimentally he arched his back and stretched his arms.
“Now I know what a pin cushion feels like.”
“Nice little trick of yours, that instant healing thing,” Manny said, wincing as Amanda helped him to his feet. “I wish you could teach it to me.”
Tom took him by the other arm and helped him the rest of the way up.
“Sorry, trade secret,” Tom said. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay,” Manny said. He tried to straighten up and grunted. “Well, it hurts a little to lift my arm,” he admitted.
“What about your back?”
“Sore, but I can manage.”
Tom looked around at the rest of their group. “Is everybody else okay?” They all nodded. Aside from a few cuts from grazes they were alright. “Okay, guys, we need to find a way out of here before—”
As they started to come together they heard a low rumbling all around them. Sections of the floor were beginning to rise throughout the room.
“Now what,” Danny said.
The rising sections of floor were all flat panels of varying widths. Some were as narrow as three feet while others were as wide as twelve feet across. There were dozens of them scattered throughout the room and there appeared to be no pattern to their placement. They stopped rising when they reached a height of four feet. One side of each panel was flat. The other side was marked by an X made of crossing metal struts that seemed to be to give the panels added strength. They were all oriented the same way, with the flat side toward the observation room.
A palpable sense of anxiety ran through the group as they stared around at the panels. At the same time the dogs began whimpering. They crowded close to Shay, their ears pulled flat to their heads as they cowered at her feet.
“Hey guys,” Shay said. “This isn’t good. The dogs are really spooked. They’re so scared I can’t make sense of their thoughts, but something bad is about to happen.”
As a group the teens unconsciously pulled together into a cluster, drawing what comfort they could from each others’ presence.
“An impressive display of teamwork,” Dr. Brooks said. “Now we will see how you manage under different conditions.”
While Dr. Brooks was talking to them, Reed was examining the panels. Most of them were dented and pitted and all of them were blackened over much of their surfaces. He rubbed at one of the blackened patches with his thumb and some of the black came off onto his finger. He rubbed it between his fingers and noted that it was like a fine dust. He detected a faint chemical odor that was somehow familiar.
Realization dawned on him and he looked up in time to see tall columns rising from the floor near the far end of the room.
“Down!” Reed yelled. “Everybody get behind one of those panels now!”
The urgency in his voice made everyone scatter and dive for cover. They had all just made it behind one of the panels when they heard a thunderous whooshing sound. The entire room was suddenly bathed in brilliant, orange light and they felt heat prickle their exposed skin as immense jets of flame flooded the space around them.
“What is wrong with this guy?” James yelled above the sound of the roaring fire.
Soon the flames stopped. No one moved.
“Is anybody hurt?” Tom called out.
When no one answered he risked peeking around the sides of his panel. As far as he could tell everyone seemed to be okay. He had taken cover behind one of the smaller panels with Paige. It was barely large enough to protect the two of them, and then only if they huddled closely together, which on second thought wasn’t such a bad thing. Shay and Dimitri were crowded behind one of the large panels with the two dogs. Manny and Amanda had found their own panel, Reed, James, and Magda were together, and Matt and Danny had partnered up.
Tom had just finished accounting for everyone when he saw a flash from the flame towers. He pulled back just in time to avoid the next round of fire.
When the flaming ceased several moments later he heard Manny call out. “We need to do something.”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Tom shouted back.
A few moments later another burst of fire filled the room.
“Six seconds!” Shay yelled when the burst ended.
“What?” Tom called back.
“I’ve been timing the bursts. Each one lasts for six seconds,” she said.
Just then another burst began.
When it stopped Shay continued, “And there’s a gap of six seconds between bursts. Six seconds on, six off.”
As the next burst began Tom thought about what they could do in six seconds.
“James, can you control the flames?” Tom called out.
“I don’t know. I can try.”
Another burst erupted just then. Tom counted off six seconds in his head and the flames stopped.
“No way!” James called out. “I can only heat things up. Once a fire starts it just goes wherever it wants to.”
“What about you, Reed?” Tom shouted. “Is there something you can do?”
After the next burst ended Reed answered, “No. The flames are generated by gas lines. There’s nothing mechanical for me to manipulate.”
Tom’s
mind raced as the next round of flaming began. When it was over he glanced around the edge of their panel again, judging the distance to the large panel where Dimitri and Shay were hiding. He turned to Paige.
“After the next burst, I want you to run to the panel where Dimitri and your sister are,” he said to her. “You should have enough time to make it.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
Flames erupted around them then, and Tom began mentally counting down the time until it would stop.
“I’ve got an idea,” he told her. He paused, counted off the final seconds, then said, “Go!”
Paige rolled from behind their panel and scrambled to the panel with her sister. When he saw that she was safe, Tom ducked back behind his panel as the next burst began and counted down the time to the next break. As soon as he reached zero he grabbed the struts on his panel and lifted.
He had noticed that the panels were bolted in place. He planned to pull one free to use as a mobile shield. The bolts were thicker than he realized and at first nothing happened. Then, as he continued to strain, he felt the bolts begin to pull free. The next burst began just as the last bolt broke. Tom dropped the panel back in place barely in time and waited until the flames stopped. Then, keeping the panel between himself and the flame towers, he began making his way forward. He moved in short hops, stopping every time the towers erupted in another spray of fire, and moving in the brief calm moments between bursts until he had covered half the distance to the towers.
The rest of the group was a ways behind him now. Between bursts they peered around the edges of their panels to check on his progress. When he was perhaps twenty yards away from the nearest tower he stopped. Just to his right there was a small panel that he could reach the next time there was a lull. After making sure that he was properly lined up with his target he stopped and waited for the next burst of fire.
The instant the flames ceased he stood and hoisted the loose panel to one side. It was heavy and hard to manage and for a moment it threatened to pull him off balance. From somewhere deep inside he found a reservoir of strength that he tapped into. The metal panel seemed suddenly much lighter as he brought it back, took aim, and launched it like a Frisbee at the nearest tower. As soon as it left his hands he dove for the cover of the other panel nearby without waiting to see the results. An ear-splitting clang reverberated in the room followed by the sound of rending metal. Moments later they felt the floor vibrate beneath them as the tower toppled to the floor.
It had been Tom’s plan to use the panel to take out one of the towers and create an open corridor they could escape through. Unfortunately, he hadn’t anticipated what happened next. Now that its fuel line had been severed, instead of the tower being taken out of commission, a great column of fire was spewing straight up from the floor. The flaming column was so tall that it reached the top of the room more than three stories overhead where it mushroomed out across a large area of the ceiling. The heat was incredible. Meanwhile, the other towers continued to send out their blasts every six seconds.
At the next lull Tom left the safety of the panel he was crouching behind and began making his way back to his friends. He had to stop and take cover several times on his way back before he made it to a panel close to where the others were waiting.
“Let me guess,” Danny shouted over the roar of the flaming column. “That’s not what you meant to do.”
“Not exactly,” Tom admitted. “But it did give me another idea.”
After the next blast ended Tom called to his cousin. “James, those towers must have fuel lines connecting them to a tank somewhere.”
“Okay,” James answered.
Another blast of fire.
“That fuel is flammable,” Tom said.
“Okay,” James said, unsure what Tom was getting at.
“Remember the football? You can flash heat the tank,” Tom said.
After the next blast ended, James called back, “Okay. But where is it?”
“You can’t, you know, just feel where it is?” Tom asked.
“No. I need to see it.”
Tom cursed silently to himself during the next flame blast.
When the blast ended Tom heard Reed say, “I think I can trace the line. Give me a second.”
Reaching out with his perception, Reed felt for the fuel line, following it back to a large storage tank some distance off to their left. Now that he had found the tank he had to come up with a way to convey that to James.
“It’s to the left,” Reed said.
“How far?” James asked, frustration apparent in his voice. He needed a more exact idea of what he was aiming at.
From where he was squatting next to James, Reed racked his brain as he tried to find a way to explain to him where the tank was. Then, for no reason that he could explain, he reached over and grabbed James by the wrist. While he held his wrist, Reed reached toward the toppled tower, stretching out with his perception for the fuel line.
There was no reason for him to suspect that he would be able to share his perception with another person. Nothing in his experience had ever suggested that it might work, but as he gripped James by the wrist he felt a connection forming between them.
James’s eyes grew wide. “I can see it!” he said, gawking at Reed.
“Great,” Reed said. “Now do something.”
James closed his eyes in concentration as he traced the fuel line down and then left, a few snaking curves around and through a myriad of other pipes and cables, then straight until…
“Found it!” James said.
Extending his arm, he spread his fingers in the direction of the tank. It was further away than anything he had ever tried to affect with his power before. For a moment he hesitated. Could he reach that far? Then he pushed his doubts aside. He was going to do it. He had to.
Mentally collecting himself he focused on the tank and let go a blast of energy. The fuel tank was larger than anything he had ever tried to heat up before. He reached down deep and tapped into a well of energy within him and directed it toward his target. In his mind’s eye he imagined his power to be like a stream of flaming liquid shooting from his fingertips. As he released the power he pictured the target beginning to glow, first red, then orange, then white hot…
The floor seemed to rise into the air then drop away beneath them accompanied by a deafening boom. The teens felt themselves being tossed around like ants in an earthquake. They actually felt the floor ripple under foot as the shockwave from the explosion shook the entire base. The lights flashed then failed altogether as the power went out. For a few seconds the column of fire was the only source of light in the room. But as the residual gas in the line bled away the flames quickly died, leaving them in pitch blackness.
For several seconds the room was silent except for some ominous creaking noises coming from different parts of the room. Then the lighting slowly came back up as the emergency generators kicked in. With the return of power they also heard a new sound—a clanging alarm.
“Sounds like a fire alarm,” Manny said, as the group cautiously climbed to their feet.
“It probably is,” Reed agreed. “That was a huge explosion. I wouldn’t be surprised if it started a fire somewhere.”
As the teens regrouped they cast furtive looks around the room.
“A fire?” Shay said. “Down here? Oh, it’s time for us to leave.”
None of them wanted to be trapped in this underground complex in the middle of a raging fire. They quickly came together and began looking for a way out. Danny nodded toward the doorway beneath the observation room windows. It seemed to be their best chance. The teens had just turned toward the doorway when Dr. Brooks’ voice boomed at them.
“You will all stay exactly where you are! You have caused quite enough trouble!”
Behind them they heard the door to the Arena opening followed by the sound of many booted feet hurrying into the room. In moments they were surrounded by more than twent
y guards, all of them armed, and all of them wearing hostile expressions. Slowly, the teens backed themselves into a tight group and raised their hands. The dogs stood defensively beside their new friends, heads lowered and teeth bared.
As he looked at the men pointing assault rifles at them, Matt’s eyebrows crawled up his forehead. Leaning toward Magda he whispered, “They’re afraid of us.”
“I know. I can feel it,” Magda said.
Tom overheard what they were saying and suddenly had an idea.
“Can you do what you did to James and Manny before?” Tom asked Magda quietly. “You know, suck their emotions away until they don’t care about us anymore.”
“I don’t know,” Magda said, nervously. Absorbing strong emotions always unsettled her. And there were so many of them. “I’ve never tried anything with so many people at once.”
Tom glanced at the guards surrounding them. “You might be our only chance, Mags,” he said.
Magda glanced at him. “You suck,” she told him. Then, “Okay, I’ll try.”
Magda allowed herself to relax and stretched out with her senses, feeling for the web of emotions surrounding them. Each of the guards became a bright point in her mind, pulsing with ripples of emotion. She felt hostility, anger and fear radiating from them. This was not going to be fun. She took a deep breath, let it out slowly and began drawing those feelings into herself.
It was like trying to swallow the ocean. She felt like she was suffocating, drowning in a sea of emotions. Somehow she made herself continue to draw their feelings into her, and slowly she felt them all letting go. It was as if all the color was leeching from their minds, leaving their thoughts in dull shades of gray, until it was like she was looking at a series of faded, black and white photographs.
The guards’ expressions grew slack. Many of them looked down at the weapons in their hands and let them fall to the floor. Those who didn’t drop their guns lowered them, letting them hang limply at their sides as they were assailed by an overwhelming sense of apathy.
As the guards relaxed their attention, Magda began to tremble. She clenched her hands tightly as she tried to contain the feelings that were threatening to overwhelm her. Her mind was filled far beyond capacity, bursting at the seams, and she knew that she couldn’t contain it. She pulled her fists to her chest, trying to force the feeling down, willing it to go away. But she knew it was futile.
Then her control slipped.
Throwing her head back she emitted a wild scream. Magda felt the pent-up energy within her exploded outward. She and the rest of her group suddenly found themselves standing in the eye of a hurricane. Around them, a spherical shockwave of incredible force raced outward, battering aside anything in its path. The guards were picked up and hurled bodily away from the teens to slam into the distant walls. The protective panels surrounding them were bent outward from where they stood, flattened like blades of grass. And high on the front wall of the room, the observation room windows shattered, spraying the occupants with millions of tiny, jagged missiles. Then it was over.
For a while no one spoke. The loudest sound was Magda’s panted breaths.
“Damn, Magda!” Paige said, looking around at the destruction.
Gradually, Magda’s breathing slowed. Her eyes, which had been glazed over, slowly regained their focus. She blinked a few times then looked around at their group.
“Is everybody okay?” she asked dreamily.
The teens glanced at each other. Everyone was accounted for.
“Now’s our chance,” Tom said. “If we make a break for the elevator we might be able to get up to them before—”
Matt looked up at the observation room.
“They’re getting up,” Matt said. With the electrified window smashed he could hear their thoughts again. “The guards in the room with us are all out cold, but the people up in the booth were just stunned.” His eyes suddenly went wide. “Oh my god! Dr. Brooks thinks we’re too dangerous. He’s telling his men to—”
Around the room they saw a number of wall panels open. Gun barrels emerged from the openings and pointed at them. But these were not like the gun that had launched the serrated disks. Each of these guns had six barrels.
Magda felt her breathing catch in her throat. She had seen guns like that before in a YouTube video her brother had shown her.
“Guys, those are mini-guns—modern Gatling guns. My brother told me about them. They can fire like four thousand rounds a minute. We’ll be torn to pieces!”
Tom looked around, desperately searching for a way to protect them. The panels that had blocked the flamethrowers lay scattered around the room.
“Help me get some of those panels together!” he called to the others. But as he started to reach for a nearby panel Magda took his arm and shook her head.
“It won’t work,” she said. “The mini-guns will punch through those panels like paper.”
“We need to do something,” Tom said. Glancing up he saw each of the guns turning, subtly adjusting their aim. He couldn’t be sure, but it almost seemed like—
“You’re right,” Matt said, answering his thoughts. “They’re assigning guns to target each of us. No matter how fast we are the targeting computers will be able to follow our every move.”
Computers!
The word echoed in each of the teens’ minds, tingling like an electric charge. As a group they looked at Danny and he knew it was all up to him. He looked up at the observation room and reached for the targeting computers with his mind. He found them quickly, but there were several programs running at the same time, one for each gun. With at least two guns targeting each of them there were too many for him to handle in the scant seconds he had.
He started to panic, unsure what he could do. They were all going to die unless he could find a way to shut down those computers. Then he saw a brief spark flare near the edge of one window as the frayed ends of severed electrical wires briefly connected. In that moment he knew what to do.
He had only done what he was about to attempt once before, and that was by accident. Like the others, powerful electrical fields interfered with his powers, making it impossible for him to interface with electronic devices. But for what he was going to do he didn’t need to connect with intricate circuit pathways.
He stretched both hands toward the observation room window. With his right hand he felt for the live cable he had seen sparking at the window edge, and drew the power toward him. With his left hand he concentrated on directing that power into the control consoles the technicians were manning. He was going to connect the consoles directly to the incoming feed lines. Without a step-down transformer to reduce the voltage, the components in the consoles would quickly be burned out. Danny wondered if the same thing would happen to him.
Then the gun barrels began to spin, quickly building up speed as they prepared to unleash their deadly barrage at the teens.
He was out of time. As soon as he sensed the live current Danny grabbed the voltage and channeled it through his body. Blue-white lightning arced across the space from the widow frame to Danny’s right hand, through his body and out through his left hand. The others jumped back, raising their hands to shield their eyes from the brilliance. For several seconds Danny stood frozen in that pose. The smell of ozone filled the air.
Up in the observation room the control consoles blew out in brilliant pyrotechnic displays as lightning danced along the panels. Shrill screams echoed from the room as the technicians were caught in the grip of the arcing electricity. Several seconds later the lights went out in the observation room. At the same time the power arcing between Danny and the window was cut.
Danny stood motionless.
“Danny?” Tom asked tentatively. “You okay?”
Danny blinked then turned his head slowly and looked at him. A halo of frizzy hair floated around his head, crackling with static charge.
“That was awesome!” Danny said.
“I don’t believe it,” Matt said s
uddenly, snapping his head toward the observation booth.
The others followed his gaze and saw a lone head cautiously poke up from behind one of the consoles.
“It’s Dr. Brooks,” Matt said. “He’s got a gun and he’s planning to—”
Tom didn’t need to hear any more. “Tree!”
Almost before the sound of Tom’s voice had faded away Dimitri was gone.
An instant later he popped into existence directly behind Dr. Brooks. Dr. Brooks spun around and tried to bring the pistol up to aim at him but Dimitri batted his arm aside and grabbed him by the throat with both hands. He had reached his limit. Consumed by fury, Dimitri squeezed with all of his might and drove Dr. Brooks backward to the floor. Dr. Brooks’s eyes bulged and he emitted gurgling sounds as Dimitri sat astride his body and banged his head repeatedly against the floor.
“We didn’t do anything to you!” Dimitri raged. “Leave us alone! Why-can’t-you-just-leave-us-alone?” He punctuated each of his words by slamming Dr. Brooks’s head against the floor until he finally stopped moving.
When the doctor had been rendered unconscious Dimitri let go of him and stood up, brushing his hair out of his eyes. He was sweating and breathing heavily. A devout pacifist, Dimitri would never admit to anyone that he had actually enjoyed beating Dr. Brooks senseless. He had been half out of his mind with fury and couldn’t have stopped himself even if he had wanted to. Besides, the man was just plain evil and needed to be stopped.
With Dr. Brooks neutralized Dimitri started to go to the window to signal his friends. Then he hesitated and turned back toward the doctor, staring down at his sprawled form. This man whom had known him since he was a baby, whom his parents had trusted to look after his medical needs since before he could remember, this evil man had secretly conducted experiments on him and his friends and then tried to kill them. Anger flared up inside of him again as he thought about the depth of his betrayal. He drew back his foot and gave Dr. Brooks a parting kick in the ribs.
“Asshole!”
Turning to the window, Dimitri looked out into the Arena and was surprised to see his friends gone. He hurried over to the window, brushed bits of broken glass from the frame and leaned across the nearest smoking console. Poking his head out of the window, he looked down at the base of the wall. He saw the others jogging up to the doorway where the elevator would be, the dogs following right behind them. The larger dog, Zeus, padded along calmly behind the teens while the slightly smaller Apollo bounded around playfully, nipping at the ears of the other dog who ignored his younger partner with all the canine dignity he could muster.
One by one they disappeared into the doorway with the dogs bringing up the rear. For a long while there was no activity. Dimitri was thinking about teleporting down to join them when he saw Danny step out of the doorway and look up.
“Hey, Dimitri, the elevator controls don’t work down here,” Danny called up to him. “Can you send it down to us from where you are?”
“I don’t know. Let me check.”
Dimitri glanced behind him. It was the first time he had actually taken a close look at the room. The place was a mess. Bits of broken glass were everywhere and crunched under his feet when he moved. All of the control panels were charred and blackened and many had acrid wisps of smoke curling up from them. That was when he first noticed the smell. It was an unpleasant odor that seemed familiar but which he couldn’t place. It reminded him of…a barbecue.
His eyes flashed to the three technicians who were draped across their consoles. They were ominously still. At his feet Dr. Brooks and Ramona lay sprawled on the floor. They had not been in direct contact with any of the consoles when Danny shorted them out. He knew that Dr. Brooks was still alive and a quick glance at the woman Ramona confirmed that she was still breathing as well.
Afraid of what he would find, but not wanting to abandon people who might be seriously injured, even though they had just tried to kill him and his friends, he approached the nearest man and tentatively reached for him. The man was pitched face down across the control console he had been operating. There was no reaction when Dimitri touched his shoulder, so he lifted the body, tipping him up so he could look into his face. The charred and blackened mess that used to be the man’s face was all he needed to see to know that he was dead. Fighting down a growing feeling of nausea he let the body slump back onto the console, then turned to check on the others. All three were dead.
He turned away from the gruesome scene and moved quickly to the back wall. In the middle of the wall was an elevator door. He walked over to it and pressed the call button but it didn’t light. Glancing up he saw that the indicator panel over the door was dark as well.
Dimitri walked back over to the window and looked down.
“The buttons don’t work up here either,” he called. “Nothing in here has any power. The place is a mess.”
“Can you find the circuit breaker panel?” Danny asked. Then, “No, wait! If you bring everything back on line it might reactivate the guns. You need to find the breaker that controls the elevator and throw that one only.”
“I don’t know where to even start looking for a breaker panel, let alone which one controls the elevator.”
Dimitri saw the others come out of the doorway and talk with Danny briefly.
“Danny thinks he could find the panel if he was up there,” Tom called up to him. “Can you teleport him up there with you?”
In the blink of an eye Dimitri rejoined his friends in the Arena. He cast a doubtful look at Danny. “I’ve never been able to carry anything more than a few pounds with me,” Dimitri said.
Shay stepped up to him and placed a hand on his arm. “Please,” she said anxiously. “We really need to get out of here.” Shay nodded toward the far end of the room.
Dimitri followed her gaze. The massive door in the opposite wall hung slightly askew on its hinges. Whether as a result of the gas tank explosion or Magda’s blast they couldn’t tell. But seeping in through the open door he could see thick ribbons of smoke curling up toward the ceiling where a growing haze was beginning to form. A flickering glow was visible through the narrow opening. The fire they had feared was apparently raging out of control. They couldn’t leave the way they had come in. Their only chance was to get up to the observation room.
“I’ll try,” he said.
Dimitri took Danny’s arm and looked up at the window opening two stories above. He could do this.
“Ready?” he asked Danny.
Danny nodded and gritted his teeth. He had no idea what teleporting would feel like.
Dimitri took several deep breaths, clenched his jaw, and flashed away.
For the barest fraction of an instant he felt an incredible yanking sensation in his shoulder. Then it was gone. He looked around and realized that he had made it safely back into the observation room.
“That wasn’t so—” he began, turning to where he expected to see Danny. But Danny wasn’t there beside him. Looking down he saw his fingers clenched around the sleeve of Danny’s shirt, but Danny wasn’t in it.
He thrust his head through the window frame. Danny was still down on the Arena floor with the rest of his friends—shirtless.
Danny placed his hands on his hips. “Can I have my shirt back?”
Dimitri dropped the shirt to him. “Sorry.”
Down in the Arena, Danny was tugging his shirt back on while Reed looked up toward the observation room. “I think I can do something about the elevator. Wait for us up there.”
Reed turned and hurried into the short passage. It was only a few paces from the Arena floor to the elevator doors. Clearing his mind, he closed his eyes and sent his consciousness up into the elevator shaft. He sensed the elevator at the top of the shaft, at the level of the observation room. Then he spent some time exploring the mechanism and realized he could indeed operate it. But when he tried to make it descend he found that it refused to move. He examined it more closely and realized that an emergency
brake had engaged when the power cut out. He spent more time trying to open the brake but without power it wouldn’t release. He decided that he would have to force it.
He probed the brake mechanism for a while until he found a way to make it to release. But he also realized that once he did, the brake would be out of service permanently. Now that he knew what to do Reed saw no reason to wait. He felt around for the pieces he needed to move, shoved the mechanism and felt the gears strip. Suddenly released, the elevator began to fall. Before it dropped more than a few feet Reed engaged the winch motor, halting the elevator’s plunge. In moments the elevator was gently being lowered to their level. When it reached the bottom of the shaft Reed caused the doors to open.
“Going up,” Reed said, motioning his friends into the car.
Once everyone, including the two dogs, was inside he moved to the rear of the car where he pressed his hand against one wall and closed his eyes. The doors closed and they felt the car begin to ascend. It didn’t take long for them to reach the observation room level and once again the doors opened.
The teens stepped out of the elevator quickly, all except for Reed who remained against the back wall. Tom stopped after going a few steps into the observation room and turned back.
“You coming?” he asked Reed.
“Yeah, um, about that,” Reed said. He spoke with his eyes closed as he maintained his concentration. “I can’t move or I’ll let go of the elevator.”
Tom frowned. “And…?”
“If I let go, it’ll drop to the bottom of the shaft,” Reed said.
“But the elevator was up here before,” Tom pointed out. “Doesn’t it have a brake or something to hold it in place so people can get in and out?”
“It did,” Reed explained, “but I had to strip the locking gears to get it down to us. There’s no way to keep it up at this level.”
“So how are you going to get out?” Tom asked.
“I’m not exactly sure.”
“What’s wrong?” Paige asked, coming up beside Tom.
“Reed can’t leave the elevator,” Tom said.
“What? Why not?”
“If he lets go of the elevator it’ll drop,” Tom said.
“And you knew this before you brought us up here?” Paige said to Reed. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that I needed to get my friends out of that death trap room,” Reed said defensively.
“But now you can’t get out,” Paige said, her tone softening.
“I can make the elevator lower me back to the Arena,” Reed said.
“And how do you get up here with the rest of us?” Paige pressed him.
“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t exactly think that part through,” Reed admitted. “But at least you guys are safe.”
“Reed!” Paige said.
“Look,” Reed said, “I’m going to have the elevator lower me back down to the bottom and we can figure it out from there.”
“Wait a minute,” Tom said. He had been studying the elevator doorway. “I might be able to hold it long enough for you to get out.”
Even with his eyes closed, skepticism showed on Reed’s face. “I know you’re this monster strong guy and all, Tom, but this elevator is a heavy duty industrial model. It’s got to weight over six thousand pounds. I don’t think even you can hold it up.”
Tom leaned into the car and looked up, studying its construction. “I won’t have to hold it for long,” he said as he reached up and placed one hand against the top of the door frame. Looking down he set his opposite foot firmly on the floor of the observation room just outside the elevator.
“And how are you going to get out of there?” Paige asked Tom.
Tom reached his free hand out to her. “You’ll pull me out.”
Paige looked at him for a moment, then clasped his hand in both of hers and braced herself. “You’re crazy.”
Tom smiled at her, then turned to Reed. “You ready?”
“As ready as I ever will be,” Reed said. “You?”
Tom adjusted his position, gave Paige one last glance and took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“Go!” Reed said.
The elevator car tilted and creaked. Tom grimaced as he took the weight of the elevator, clenching his teeth with the effort, but he held the elevator in place. Reed snapped his eyes open, took a couple of running steps and dove through the open door. As soon as he was free, Paige squeezed Tom’s hand.
“Now!” she said.
She yanked on Tom’s arm with all of her strength, tugging him out of the doorway as he released the elevator car. It dropped immediately. Tom felt the rush of air as the top of the elevator’s doorway streaked past, barely missing his shoulder.
Paige had pulled him so forcefully that she lost her balance and fell backward, pulling Tom down on top of her. A moment later they heard a loud crash from the open elevator shaft.
Tom lay sprawled on top of Paige, supporting himself on his forearms as he gazed into her eyes.
“Thanks,” he said.
Chapter Fourteen