“Come on!” I yell. “Bring it towards the lawn!” We’ll have more space to fight it there and, considering how clumsy the monster seems, it’s probably best if we keep it moving. Hopefully, I can figure something out while it chases us.
“Oh man, I don’t feel so hot,” Daniela says. Normally a graceful and fast runner, Daniela stumbles over her own feet as we sprint towards the lawn. I grab her by the arm and drag her along. “Something happened to me in that vision shit. My head is pounding.”
Chunks of cement erupt from the Mogasaur’s latest forward step and pelt my shoulders.
“I’m gonna try something, Johnny!” Nine says, and breaks off from us.
“Do your thing,” I say, trusting Nine not to get himself killed.
Nine sprints to the edge of the plaza, where there’s a row of metal binoculars on poles stuck into the ground, the things meant for tourists to admire the view of Manhattan. He rips two of these out of the ground, holding one in each hand like clubs. Then, he charges right towards the monster. His super speed kicks in and he’s a blur streaking across the plaza.
I could use that. I try to focus on Nine, imagine the way his muscles work overtime, how he builds up that speed with his Legacy. But nothing clicks.
The lumbering creature actually seems confused when Nine runs right at it. The thing hesitates, trying to decide whether to go straight at Nine or to keep chasing the rest of us. Then, maybe reasoning in its tiny brain that it’s easier to stay stationary, the Mogasaur lets out a welcoming shriek in Nine’s direction. It raises up one of its giant hands, preparing to swat Nine as soon as he gets close.
“Does he know what he’s doing?” Sam asks.
“Does he ever?” I reply.
We reach the edge of the lawn across from the Statue of Liberty. At that point, Daniela straight up falls to her knees, unable to go any farther.
“Oh man, my head’s going to explode,” she moans. She curls up into a ball and massages her eyes with the heels of her hands.
“What’s wrong with her?” Sam asks me.
“I don’t know!”
Our eyes meet and we both realize something at the same time. Together, Sam and I turn towards Daniela.
“She’s getting a new Legacy!” Sam says.
I crouch down next to her. “Whatever’s happening to you, Daniela—let it happen! Let it out and—” I’m cut off as the Mogasaur swipes at Nine.
The impact is massive. The beast leaves a six-foot-deep hand-shaped indentation in the plaza’s concrete. At first, I think there’s no way Nine could’ve survived that. But then I see him, using his antigravity Legacy to run right up the muscled, black-veined forearm of the Mogasaur.
The monster roars, enraged, and swats at Nine with its other hand. Nine runs along to the underside of the creature’s forearm at just the right moment, avoiding the impact. He’s fast and he’s stuck to the Mogasaur, moving farther and farther up his arm like an annoying little bug. I’m not sure what he’s going to do when he gets to the beast’s head. If I had to guess, I’d bet Nine doesn’t know yet either.
“John!” someone shouts from behind me. “John! Release me!”
I turn around to see Five struggling across the grass on his knees. We’d left him there all tied up with the ropes we got from the coast guard boat. He doesn’t have his blade weapon or his ball bearing to change his skin to metal, so Five’s about as harmless as he’ll ever be.
“Oh, hell no,” Sam says, glancing at Five.
“I know what that thing is,” Five says, reaching us. He sits back on his knees, his hands bound in front of him, and looks up at me. “I know how to kill it. I can help you.”
“Tell me,” I say.
“Setrákus Ra calls it the Hunter,” Five says quickly. “He was building it while I was still on board the Anubis. It has Loric pendants in its eyes and can use them to sense the location of any Garde. There’s no retreat, we have to kill it.”
As Five speaks, Nine reaches the crux of the Hunter’s shoulder. The beast gives up on trying to swat him off. Now, it tilts its spiny head over and tries to swallow Nine whole. Nine responds by jabbing the broken end of one of the metal poles straight up into the roof of the monster’s mouth. The creature whips its head away and howls.
Next to me, Daniela moans. Sam kneels down next to her and rubs her back. “Come on, uh, do what John said,” Sam tries, but Daniela’s only response is to groan. He looks up at me. “We need to figure something out! If you guys have some new badass powers, now is the time to use them!”
“He needs to go for the eyes, John,” Five insists, ignoring everything but me. “Let me free. I can help you.”
“Why the hell should I trust you?” I ask.
Five’s expression darkens. I see him strain against his bonds, testing them. He looks up at me, and I can tell he’s making a concerted effort to control his anger.
“Because I could break out of these if I really wanted to,” Five answers me. “But I won’t. You saved my life, John, and no matter what you think, I’m not like him.”
I know exactly what Five’s talking about. Setrákus Ra and Pittacus Lore. Mercy followed by betrayal.
“I want to help,” Five growls. “Let me help.”
“Screw it,” Sam says, making the decision for me. He takes out Five’s wrist-mounted blade, extends it and slashes through Five’s bonds. “All hands on deck.”
I glance back at the monster. Nine jabs his remaining metal pole into the side of the beast’s neck over and over. I can see some black blood spilling out, but he’s definitely not doing much damage. Then, shrieking, the monster swats at him again. This time, he clips Nine a little, and he’s forced to retreat down the monster’s back.
Above the Hunter’s bellowing, I hear the familiar whup-whup-whup of helicopters. A pair of sleek Black Hawks just took off from the Brooklyn Bridge and are on their way. So, Agent Walker’s not totally useless after all.
“Can I have that back?” Five asks Sam, holding a hand out for his weapon.
“No,” I say, putting myself in between the two of them. “You said you could help. Go help.”
Five sighs. “Fine. I’ll do it the hard way.” He floats a few feet off the ground, then looks at me. “All right, John. Light me on fire.”
“What?”
“Light me on fire!” he shouts.
I don’t need much more convincing to hurt Five. I let my Lumen go and lob a small fireball at him. He lets it hit him and immediately his skin is covered in flames.
“Thanks,” he says, and streaks off towards the Hunter, our very own flaming missile.
I crouch down next to Daniela and press my hands against her head. I let my healing Legacy flow, hoping that will help ease her pain. It’s not really my healing Legacy, though, is it? It’s Ximic, and healing is just the one Legacy I’ve gotten really good at copying. It doesn’t help Daniela, but something does happen when the energy flows between us. Suddenly, I can sense exactly what’s happening inside her.
I can feel it too. A pressure behind the eyes. A heavy weight that feels like it’s trying to punch through my face.
“It’s tearing me apart!” Daniela screams.
“Agh, I know! I feel it too!” I reply, holding the sides of my head like my cranium might split apart.
Meanwhile, Five, pure velocity and white-hot heat, flies himself right into one of the Hunter’s eyes. There’s a sick puckering sound and the monster screams louder than ever. A moment later, a hole explodes through the back of its head and out comes Five. He holds something aloft. It must be one of the Loric pendants.
“Holy shit,” Sam says. “That was nasty, but it worked.”
The Hunter just took a human bullet through the brain. I bet he feels pretty similar to the way Daniela and I do right now. It doesn’t topple over dead like I hope. Instead, it just gets angrier. It flings itself towards Five, who zips away quickly. Still clinging to the beast but now getting the idea of how to really hurt it, Nine s
tarts climbing up towards its remaining eyes.
That’s when the Black Hawks arrive. They bombard the Hunter with missile strikes that only annoy the monster further. While I appreciate the help, their weapons aren’t going to hurt this thing. There’s a good chance those pilots are just going to get themselves killed or hit Nine and Five by accident.
The Hunter thrashes around, smashing through the plaza, and nearly backhanding one of the choppers out of the sky. It makes it extremely hard for Five to line up another strike at the creature’s eyes.
When the Hunter tilts its head back and roars, the powerful gust of bad breath is enough to blow Nine right off the monster’s face. He flies away from the Hunter’s body and plummets the hundred or so feet back towards the concrete ground. I try to reach out with my telekinesis, but the distance is too far and my head is pounding so much that I can’t focus.
Five swoops down, flames extinguished. Instead of going in for another strike, Five catches Nine by the wrist in midair. He lowers him gently to the ground. In response, Nine punches him right in the face. Because of course he does.
The chopper pilots are coming in for another pass. Grounded now, Five and Nine are right in the Hunter’s path. Things are going south in a hurry.
“If you guys are going to do something, now is the time!” Sam yells.
I don’t know what to do. I can feel this Legacy I copied from Daniela building up inside of me, but I have no idea what it does or how to use it. I’m flailing here. All I’ve got is a splitting headache. There has to be more to it.
With an anguished cry, Daniela springs to her feet. She shoves both of us aside and screams.
“I have to let it out!”
Daniela opens her eyes and a concentrated beam of silver energy shoots towards the Hunter. At first, she’s completely out of control, the energy beam seeming painfully large as it rips through her head, and zigzagging all over the monster’s body. But, after a few seconds, Daniela gets a grip. The beam becomes narrower and more focused.
The result is better than I could’ve hoped.
The Hunter makes a confused yelping sound as it looks down at itself and finds its massive body turning into stone.
As soon as I see Daniela do it, I realize that I can do it too. I focus on the weight behind my eyes—like a boulder, aching to roll down a hill—and shove it out. My vision takes on a silvery tint as the beam flows from my eyes. It’s difficult at first, I have to control it with my eyes, so it’s not easy to be precise, but I get the hang of it pretty quickly. So does Daniela. Soon, we’re painting streaks of stone up and down the confused monster’s towering frame.
The Hunter tries to lumber forward to get at Nine and Five, but its legs aren’t working anymore. They’re solid blocks of rock.
It’s over a few seconds later. Towering next to the Statue of Liberty is a grayish tombstone of the most formidable Mogadorian creation I’ve ever seen, its hideous features forever frozen in a mask of confused rage. Nine and Five stare up at the thing, too confused to even fight each other. The helicopters circle around it, obviously detecting that the beast is no longer a threat and merely an eyesore.
“Ow,” Daniela responds, and leans against me for support. “That did not feel good at all.”
I rub my own face. “No kidding.”
“That was amazing!” Sam shouts. “You’re like Medusa.”
“That is not going to be my superhero code name,” Daniela responds sharply. “Ugh.”
“And you’re like—like—” Sam’s too excited to even say it.
“Like Pittacus,” I finish for him.
“Holy shit, yes! This is big. Do you realize how big this is?”
“It’s big.”
“Kinda stealing my new Legacy thunder here,” Daniela grumbles.
I shake my head and laugh, actually feeling relief for the first time in days. Nine walks towards the monster monument, hands on his hips, and knocks on the stone. While he does that, Five slinks back to the rest of us. I notice that he’s hung the Loric pendant ripped out of the monster’s skull around his own neck. I wonder if that’s his original pendant that he gave up or had taken by Setrákus Ra, or if it belongs to one of the dead Garde. I don’t press the issue right now. He holds out his hands.
“Well, I tried,” he says. “You can tie me back up if you want.”
I exchange a quick look with Sam. I know Five just helped us and I know he said he could’ve broken those ropes if he needed to, but I still feel more comfortable with him tied up. He’s a loose cannon and a murderer. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to really trust him.
As I pick up the ropes that Sam just cut through a few minutes ago, Agent Walker and her surviving team walk over to us. She’s on her satellite phone in the middle of a hushed conversation. While she isn’t paying attention, Agent Murray grins at us and flashes a big double thumbs-up.
The helicopters set down a ways off, on one of the few stretches of plaza that wasn’t demolished by the Hunter. I guess they’re going to ferry us back to the military encampment. I have to find out what’s happened with the other Garde. I don’t have any new scars on my ankles, which means the battle is either won or still ongoing. I need to get to them, to Setrákus Ra, and put this new Legacy to good use.
Well, as long as I can figure out how to use it.
“Yes, sir,” Agent Walker says into the phone, then holds it away from her face, blinking in shock like she can’t believe what’s happening. She seems more surprised by her conversation than by the monster statue Daniela and I just made. She covers the mouthpiece of the phone and holds it out for me. “John, uh, I have the president on the line for you.”
I stare at her. “What? Seriously?”
Walker nods. “He’s apparently . . . um, changed his opinion on fully supporting the Loric. He wants you in Washington right away to discuss strategy.”
I hand the ropes off to Nine as he saunters over to us. He’s all too happy to be the one tying up Five. “Catching me didn’t make us even,” I hear him mutter to Five.
“No, it doesn’t,” Five replies quietly.
I ignore them for now. I’m about to talk to the president. I shake my head, eyeing Walker. “This isn’t some kind of trick, is it?”
“No,” Walker says, shaking the phone at me. “He’s for real. It sounds nuts but, apparently, his older daughter just experienced some kind of . . . vision? Where you gave a speech?”
Sam can’t hold back the laughter. “Get out!”
Walker looks at both of us. “Did I miss something?”
“No,” I say, smiling and reaching for the phone. “I’ll explain later.”
Before I can take Walker’s satellite phone, my own phone begins to vibrate in my back pocket. Only two people in the world have that number—Sarah and Six. The fight with Setrákus Ra must be over if they’re calling me. Hell, maybe they even killed the old bastard.
“Sorry,” I tell Walker, taking out my own phone. She looks at me like I’m crazy. “Tell the president to hold. I’ve got to take this.”
I answer the phone and immediately my good mood evaporates. I can hear rushing air, distant blaster fire and way too much screaming. I think that’s Mark and he sounds absolutely out of his mind, shouting at someone to wake up. My stomach drops.
And then, Sarah starts talking.
“John . . .” Her voice is shaky, weak. “Listen, I don’t have much time . . .”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
“HOLD ON!” LEXA SHOUTS OVER HER SHOULDER from the pilot’s chair, and the ship rocks violently to the side. Blaster fire sizzles through the air outside, close to hitting us. She takes another evasive maneuver and banks us hard to the right.
The Anubis chases us, unloading its energy cannons anytime it has anything close to a clear shot. I have faith that Lexa will get us clear, though. Our ship is smaller, faster, and she’s a damn good pilot.
“What’s going on back there?” she yells, sweat dripping
down her face as she dips us lower to the jungle, using trees for cover. “Six? Talk to me, Six!”
I can’t talk.
Across the aisle from me, Ella sits with her back against the wall, her knees drawn up tight to her chest. She hugs herself and rocks back and forth, crying. Her face is smeared with that oil-like garbage, but at least it has stopped flowing out of her. There’s still the occasional crackle of Loric energy around her head.
“I warned him,” she whispers to herself over and over again. “I warned you all what would happen.”
Marina lies on a cot towards the back of the ship, unconscious and in a bad way, her body strapped down so as not to be jostled during our hurried escape flight. I don’t even want to guess how many of her bones are broken, or if she’ll ever wake up again.
That doesn’t stop Mark, desperate and crying, from violently shaking her by the shoulders.
“Wake up!” he yells in her face. “You’re the healer, goddamn you! You have to wake up and heal her!”
Adam lunges at him. The Mogadorian slams Mark hard against the wall of the ship and presses his forearm right up against his throat. Mark struggles against him, so Adam just slams him against the wall until he stops.
“Stop! You could kill her, shaking her like that,” Adam growls.
“I have to—” Mark pleads. Adam shakes his head firmly.
“There’s nothing you can do,” he says, trying not to sound cold.
Mark presses his forehead against Adam’s and screams, “We never should have come here!”
All the chaos doesn’t seem to bother Sarah. She looks up at me and smiles peacefully. She’s paler than I’ve ever seen her. A second ago, I gave her my satellite phone to call John.
“John . . . Listen, I don’t have much time,” she says, her voice thin and weak.
My hands are covered in Sarah’s blood. I’m doing my best to stop the bleeding, but the wound is huge. I don’t even know what hit her exactly, there were so many objects flying through the air. Something jagged and large. It tore right through her side, above the hip and out. Took a big part of her midsection with it. I took some bad shots during that exchange with Setrákus Ra, but I’m going to make it.