“That won’t happen if you’re tardy again, Mr. Jackson,” Professor Flynn scolded.
Albert and his friends stifled their laughs. He couldn’t help but notice that a good portion of the crowd was laughing, too.
Professor Flynn spoke again. “Quiet, please, everyone. I called you here today because I have some information to share about the situation in Calderon. I thought today’s Competition would be a good place to illustrate what we’re up against, because it’s important for our training units to know what they may be getting into.
“The barrels you see here are a crude representation of the many flying creatures in Calderon, including King Fireflies. As mentioned last week, the current Imbalance in Calderon has affected these creatures in unexpected ways.”
Professor Flynn nodded to Trey, and Trey blew his silver whistle. The barrels began spinning around the copper mountain like swings at an amusement park. Each barrel was held aloft by four cables. Some of the cables snapped forward and back, lurching the barrels off-balance. As if that wasn’t alarming enough, the barrels began shooting fireballs. Albert felt himself swallow hard. Things had just gotten a lot more serious.
“Grey, Aria, and Terran report that the King Fireflies, usually gentle creatures, have gone berserk. They are flying erratically and spitting fire.” Professor Flynn took a moment to compose himself. “I am sad to report that much of the Realm has been burned to a crisp.”
There were some gasps from the crowd. Birdie grabbed Albert’s hand.
“The fires set by the King Fireflies are the source of the ash clouds on the surface of the earth, of course,” Professor Flynn continued. “The question is, what is causing the King Fireflies to behave this way?
“Our Core Historians have determined that there has been one other instance of King Fireflies going mad in the history of the Realms, centuries ago. Our records from that occurrence show that a stagnant Sea Inspire was to blame.
“As many of you know, the Sea Inspire is the underground lake beneath Calderon Peak. It’s the King Fireflies’ source of nutrition, like nectar is to butterflies.
“But the Sea Inspire’s nutritional qualities depend on the water cycling through four underground tunnels below Calderon Peak, a process that essentially filters the water.”
“Like the pump in my aquarium back home?” someone to Albert’s right said. It was Slink. No way. Slink has pet fish? Albert never would have guessed that in a million years. Hoyt gave Slink a quick kick in the boot and Slink hung his head.
“Exactly, Mr. Parker. If the water doesn’t cycle through, bacteria can grow.”
“That’s lame,” Mo said. “Why’s this such a big deal? Toss some chlorine in there and we’re done.”
“Not so fast. You’re a Second Term Balance Keeper, Mr. Haxel. You should know why it’s not that easy.” Professor Flynn looked at Mo with a raised eyebrow, daring him to answer.
Mo mumbled something under his breath that Albert couldn’t hear.
“Speak up, Mr. Haxel. You have a pretty large audience, after all.”
Mo took a deep breath and spoke in a loud voice. “The Realm always provides the Means.”
Huh? Albert thought.
“I’ve seen that somewhere!” Birdie said, louder than she intended to, Albert guessed.
“It’s in the Main Chamber,” Leroy said, “carved in the stone above the entrances to the three Realms.”
“That’s right, Mr. Jones. Good memory.” Professor Flynn winked. “The Realms are natural systems—different from the nature we know on the surface, yes, but natural nonetheless. That means that while the Realms sometimes naturally fall out of Balance, they also provide the Means to Restore Balance again.”
“Wait a second,” Albert said. “I thought it was our job to restore Balance.” If the Realms could fix themselves, was all this training for nothing?
“Ah—providing the Means to Restore Balance is quite different from actually using those Means to Restore Balance, Albert. That’s what Balance Keepers are for.”
“All right, all right,” Hoyt said impatiently. “The drain pipes are clogged up and the King Fireflies are going all nutso from drinking the nasty water and setting things on fire. We get it. What’s that got to do with the Competition?”
Albert had to admit he was wondering the same thing.
“Your challenge today is threefold. Find the Means to Restore Balance, which Trey and I have planted in the Pit, deliver the Means to the top of Copper Peak, and release the Means’s contents into the mountain.”
“But what is the Means to Restore Balance?” Birdie asked. “What are we looking for?”
“Good question, Miss Howell,” Professor Flynn said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have an answer for Calderon yet—it appears that that part of the Core records has gone missing. What we do know is that the Means to Restore Balance is another liquid that must be released into the mountain.”
“Like how Pap uses Drano when the pipes get clogged in the post office?” Albert said, chuckling to himself.
“Exactly, Albert, though we prefer not to think of the Realm as a giant toilet.” Professor Flynn winked at Albert. “In the simulation today, you’ll be looking for a giant acorn. You Cedarfell boys are familiar with them, I assume?”
“Yes, sir,” Albert, Leroy, and Slink said together. Hoyt and Mo mumbled something a little less polite.
“Let’s get started, then,” Professor Flynn said. “Keep your wits about you, Balance Keepers! Trey! The whistle!”
Trey blew his whistle again, and the Pit reacted even more fiercely than before.
The barrels started to buck even more wildly. Some of them shot more blue fireballs. They’d dealt with fire in the Pit, but it had been stationary before. Seeing it shoot all over the place made Albert a little nervous. In Calderon, it would only be worse. And who knew what other dangers the Imbalance would cause?
“Find the acorn, release its contents in the Peak, and your team wins!” Professor Flynn said. “On my count. Three, two, one. Begin!”
The crowd went wild as Albert, Leroy, and Birdie huddled up together to talk strategy. Hoyt’s team did the same.
“All right, guys,” Albert said, taking the lead. “This is serious business. Where should we start? Leroy, do you see anything around here, any clues about where the acorn might be?”
“Well, we always had to go up before, so I’m guessing that the chances of the acorn being down here, within our reach, are pretty low,” Leroy said. “But those barrels are at least twenty feet over our heads, and getting to the top of the Peak won’t be easy.”
Albert nodded in agreement.
“So we’ll climb the walls,” Birdie said. She pointed at the sides of the Pit. They were like giant rock-climbing walls, with foot- and handholes every few feet, though Albert noted that regular rock-climbing walls didn’t have fire bursting forth from them at any given moment.
“It looks like the ground is trampoline style again,” Leroy noticed, bouncing a little. “If we fall, it’s cool. We’ll live.”
“You’re not scared?” Birdie punched him on the shoulder, laughing. “I think our Leroy’s growing up.”
Leroy’s face reddened. “Maybe I am. Besides, today is about proving to Hoyt that I’m not afraid of him.”
“Attaboy, Leroy!” Albert said. “Come on, let’s do this!”
They ran forward and started climbing the outer walls of the Pit, side by side. Ten feet up, Albert’s foot slipped and landed in Birdie’s face.
“Sorry!” Albert cried out.
Birdie shook her head and blinked her eyes a few times. “I’m okay; keep going.”
Across from them, Hoyt was already at the top. Albert knew Hoyt’s Speed Tile made short order of climbing challenges. He wished all over again that he knew how to make his own Tile help him out. He had certainly done things in the Core that seemed impossible, but he couldn’t say for sure those moments had been his Tile at work. And if it was his Tile, he certainly
didn’t know how he was activating its powers.
“What’s next?” Birdie asked, halfway to the top. She clung to the wall like a bug. Albert and Leroy climbed up beside her, their muscles tired from hanging on. Blue flames shot out from holes all around them, bursting forth with a sound like a giant blowtorch.
“I guess we jump for it,” Leroy said. “First to the barrels, then maybe to the Peak?”
The barrels were spinning around Copper Peak, soaring past in a blur.
“We’ll have to time it just right,” Albert concluded. “Leroy, you want to call the shots on this one?”
“Now that’s a job I can do,” Leroy said. “All right, get ready. When I say jump, jump!”
Albert and Birdie watched as the barrels swung past. If Albert looked at only one barrel, it was easier to focus. He counted the seconds, trying to time it just right. He knew Leroy would have it all figured out, so when he heard his friend counting down, and then screaming, “Jump!” Albert pushed off the wall, leaped into midair, and crashed into a barrel. Somehow he was able to hang on as the barrel sailed by and to sit astride it like a cowboy as it bucked and swayed. Behind him, Albert heard Leroy’s command, and saw Birdie jump from the corner of his eye. Leroy waited a few more seconds, then leaped from the wall and clung to a barrel.
It looked to Albert like Leroy’s Texas upbringing was finally paying off. Leroy’s horse-riding skills were turning him into a barrel-riding rodeo champion.
“Yeehaw!” Albert screamed, laughing as Leroy soared past like a pro.
Out of nowhere, Albert’s barrel went wild. One of the cables snapped and he slid backward, somersaulting into the open air. The rubbery floor of the Pit bounced him back up, and he clung on to the rock wall. He glanced around to see where Hoyt was, but from his position on the wall, he couldn’t tell who was who up above. “These teams are neck and neck! It’s a new day, ladies and gentlemen!” Professor Flynn shouted. Well. Better climb faster.
The crowd, so large in size, was naturally louder than they had been in previous simulations, but also more enthusiastic. People actually knew who Hydra was now, probably from Leroy’s massive win in Tiles the night before. Petra was up there again, calling out a Hydra cheer. Albert heard the names of his own team: Come on, Birdie! Ride that thing, Leroy! Climb, Albert, climb! The swell of voices told him the crowd was on his side, and it gave him a huge boost of confidence. He climbed with a new purpose and energy, then leaped into the air from the side of the Pit. Albert could not have landed more awkwardly on a barrel, but somehow he’d done it. All three Hydra team members were riding bucking barrels around the Copper Peak. Now they just had to find the acorn. Albert trusted Leroy’s guess that it was somewhere up here. He looked closely at the Peak, trying to get a glimpse of something.
But the barrels spun wildly, bucking like crazy, and Albert had to concentrate on holding on. Finally, the barrels calmed down a bit and Albert could really look around. He saw that Hoyt, Mo, and Slink were riding behind him. Team Argon was right on their tails.
“Folks, we have ourselves a race!” Professor Flynn yelled.
“Now what do we do?” Albert called to Birdie and Leroy.
The barrels started spitting fire at one another. The one Slink was on shot fire at Albert’s. Albert leaped just in time as his barrel burst into blue flames. He landed on Leroy’s barrel. When he did, Leroy’s barrel went wild.
“See anything?” Albert shouted into Leroy’s ear.
As if in answer to Albert’s question, the Copper Peak started to ooze something green and slippery from the rock. Albert knew there had to be something important about this event, but he couldn’t quite figure it out.
“I forgot to mention,” Professor Flynn suddenly shouted into the MegaHorn, “the bacteria has also caused a strange sludge to ooze from the mountain. Take caution!”
But green ooze was the least of Albert’s problems. Suddenly, Slink’s barrel came crashing into Albert and Leroy’s, and all three players burst into the air like popcorn. With the extra height from the collision, Albert saw a flash of a familiar shape at the very top of the Peak.
Gotcha! Albert said to himself. He knew he’d seen something important and hoped Team Argon hadn’t spotted it yet.
He curled into a tight ball and hit the rubbery ground like a wrecking ball. The floor launched him, shooting him high into the air until he reached his arms out and grabbed a barrel flying past.
He spotted the shape again. It was there, at the very top, right where the green goo was spilling out.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Hoyt had caught on, too. Hoyt was shouting commands to his team, instructing them to get to the top of the Copper Peak.
Albert tightened his grip on his barrel as Slink leaped from his own barrel onto the Copper Peak. Slink landed on a slick, narrow pathway that wound around the mountain, but his feet slipped and he fell off in an instant. Albert watched as Hoyt tried next, but he jumped too far, tumbling over the edge and down to the floor of the Pit.
“We need someone with good balance!” Albert yelled.
He looked at Birdie, but she was busy fighting with Mo for a barrel, and didn’t look like she had heard Albert. Leroy was way too tall to have great balance, wasn’t he?
“I’m not doing that!” Leroy shouted. His glasses were askew on his face. “No way! I’ve already reached my limit for today!”
Albert took a deep breath, and nodded. Looks like it’s gonna be me.
The barrels were going even faster, speeding up as the challenge wore on. Around and around they went, tangling into one another. Just as Albert was about to jump, he heard a terrible crash. Mo had finally knocked Birdie off of the barrel, and she was falling.
“Birdie!” Albert screamed. He stretched his free arm for her, but he wasn’t quite close enough.
He watched, sick to his stomach, as Birdie hit the floor of the Pit. She cried out at first, but after the Pit had bounced her up and back down two more times, she lay still, crumpled on the floor. No! She has to be okay. She has to!
Albert almost leaped from his barrel, but before he could do anything, Professor Flynn rode down in his mechanical cage, scooped Birdie up, and hauled her to the observation level.
Across from Albert, Hoyt’s team was laughing, pointing at Birdie as she stepped out of the cage on wobbly legs, then crumpled back down to the floor. Trey helped her up and led her away. At least she was on her feet, out of there safely. That made Albert focus again. He was angry, upset at Mo for hurting his friend, and even more upset at Hoyt for making such a show of her.
Okay, Albert. Now’s your chance. Let’s do this, for Birdie.
“Go for it, Albert!” Leroy shouted. He was pointing at the Copper Peak. “You can do this!”
Albert waited for the right opportunity. A burst of blue fire shot out of the volcano, and as it cleared, Albert prepared to jump. Slink’s barrel was just behind Albert’s, and Albert watched in horror as Slink stretched his foot out and kicked Albert’s barrel, knocking him into a tailspin. There was nothing he could do.
“Nice try, sucker!” Slink yelled. He pulled a yellow Tile out of his pocket and waved it in Albert’s face. It had a triangle on it with a sphere balanced perfectly on top. He slipped it around his neck and leaped. He landed on the narrow path with surprising precision, and started to make his way to the top of the mountain.
How was Albert supposed to compete with Slink without one of his own Balance Tiles?
Albert wasn’t going to lose another simulation. There was no way he’d let that happen, especially with Birdie out and possibly injured. Another cable on his barrel snapped. He almost tumbled off, but he held strong.
Albert took a deep breath, readied himself for the jump, and pushed off the barrel. While he leaped, an image popped into his head. It was that strange Balance Cat that Lucinda had given to Leroy when they first entered the Core. He wished he had that now. In midair, something happened to Albert. He had a strange feeling, like he’d just ch
ugged down an entire fizzy soda. He felt lighter, like he was almost completely weightless.
When he landed on the path that wound around the mountain, he was only a few feet behind Slink. At first, Albert felt like he was going to fall right back off. The path was only a few inches wide, thinner than thin, and cool, green ooze flowed down the copper mountainside like neon lava, making the way even more slippery and dangerous. But instead of slipping, his feet felt rooted to the spiral pathway. It felt quite strange, really. There was no time for observations, though—Slink was already a few feet ahead of him. Albert turned sideways, placing his back toward the mountain’s side, and began sliding up as fast as he could.
“It’s a close race!” Albert heard his dad say, but he was too focused to listen to the rest.
Albert’s eyes fell on Hoyt on a barrel across the Pit. The guy was laughing, pointing at Leroy falling from his barrel. For a second, as Hoyt shot past, Albert caught sight of his Tile.
A sideways zigzag symbol.
Focus, Albert. No time for distractions! And as Albert continued forward, desperate to catch up to Slink, he was suddenly there. Right behind the guy, in two seconds flat! He had moved fast like Hoyt! Yet here he was, still balanced like Slink. This time, Albert could feel it in his bones. This was his Tile at work, and whatever the reason, it was allowing him two skill sets at one time. It should have been impossible, but there was no time for wondering why. Now he had to get around Slink.
All right, Tile, Albert thought. I need to jump like those Jackalope things, like I did in the second simulation. He pictured himself leaping high and wide, and as he did, he felt like he’d been plugged into a light socket and powered up. He bent his knees, dodged a ball of cool fire from Hoyt’s barrel as it flew by, and jumped.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. One second, Albert was in midair over Slink’s head, and the next, he’d landed sideways on the pathway, perfectly balanced.
“No way!” Hoyt screamed from below. “He’s cheating!”