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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Both of John’s fists glow with fire. He sends two burning orbs the size of basketballs sailing right towards me.

I wouldn’t have lobbed fireballs that intense at Marina if I wasn’t sure the bracelet could handle them. The shield deploys in time to absorb them, but the force still knocks her against the wall, stunning her. I don’t know what she’s up to, sneaking around on the sidelines, but I’m sure it’s part of some plan their team concocted.

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

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

“What’s your plan, Marina?”

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

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

I know what’s coming as soon as Sam yells, but there’s no way to dodge it. Eight teleports next to me, socking me in the jaw and knocking me away from Marina. As I turn to face him, he teleports behind me, kicking me in the back with both his feet. I stagger onto one knee. How am I supposed to defeat a teleporter in hand-to-hand combat?

I try to line up a shot on Eight, but he’s moving too fast. He keeps teleporting around John, hitting him with a quick punch and then disappearing before John can counterattack. Next to me, Bernie Kosar is still in the same boa form as when Eight teleported out of his clutches.

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

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

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

Wait. Where is that breeze coming from?

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

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

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

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

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

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

I line up my shot and fire.

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

“Six!” I yell, startled. “I’m sorry!”

I don’t even see Marina coming.

Now is your chance, Marina. Go!

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

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

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

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

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

I sprint across the ceiling to our home-base wall and drop back down to the floor, holding the flag aloft. Part of me can’t believe it, even when Malcolm blows a whistle signaling an end to the game. I did it. We won!

“Damn,” I say, rubbing my head where it bounced off the wall. “Didn’t see that coming.”

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

“Good game, boss,” he says.

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

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

“No hard feelings,” Nine says, smirking.

“Yeah, sure,” Five replies sullenly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Well done,” he says.

“Not exactly. We lost.”

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

I look at Malcolm, waiting for an answer.

“A force to be reckoned with.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

AFTER TRAINING, WHEN I EMERGE FROM THE shower, Sam is waiting for me in the hallway outside the bathroom. He’s frowning, pretty much the same look he’s had since after capture the flag, like he just single-handedly lost the war for us instead of making one mistake in a training game.

“I really screwed up out there,” he says. “I can see why you’re not bringing me to the Everglades.”

Once everyone was healed, the group came together to unanimously vote on flying to the Everglades tomorrow. Sam staying behind has nothing to do with his performance in the Lecture Hall; it just makes sense to have him and Malcolm in Chicago, using the tablet to coordinate if we should get separated, and monitor news feeds in case of trouble. It’s an important task, but not something I was going to try talking any of the others into doing. No one wants to stay behind on our first mission as a unified Garde.