Pittacus Lore - The Fall of Five

I reach out with my telepathy— Bernie Kosar, you need to be quiet now —but don’t get any response. Not seeing any other option but to try and wrestle the antler away from him, I step forward. Before I take a second step, Bernie drops onto all fours, letting go of the antler. His howling echoes in my ears for a few seconds after it’s over. I grab the antler with my telekinesis and pluck the slobber-covered thing out of the air. BK pants happily, looking around at everyone.

I make eye contact with Nine, both of us patched into BK telepathically. “It’s like he doesn’t know what just happened,” I say.

“Are you drunk, BK?” Nine asks, mystified.

BK bounds over to us, tail wagging. He’s got the same look of dog euphoria that he gets when we’ve just come back from a really satisfying run outside.

“You freaked us out,” I tell him. “You know you were up here making all kinds of noise, right?”

BK sits down at my feet. Sarah crouches down to scratch his ears.

“Can you ask him what he was doing?” Sarah says, looking up at me and Nine.

“Trying,” I reply, and Nine nods too, squinting at BK. “It’s a lot of images and feelings, you know? Not exactly words.”

“Telepathic barking,” Eight observes.

“Pretty much,” replies Nine.

“He says—” I pause, wanting to make sure I’m getting my interpretation of BK’s thoughts right. “He says he was calling the others.” I hold up the antler. “I guess that’s what this is for.”

“The others?” Marina asks. “You mean the Chimæra from Ella’s ship?”

“I guess so,” I reply, looking down at BK. Do you think they heard you?

BK rolls over onto his back, asking Sarah to rub his belly. I guess that’s the Chimæra equivalent of a shrug.

“He doesn’t know,” I say.

Nine shakes his head. “Well, crisis averted. I’m going to bed. Can we have a night without screaming or howling, please?”

Everyone else follows Nine downstairs, leaving just Sarah, BK and me. The night air is cool and, now that BK has stopped with the noise, it’s peaceful. I kneel down next to Sarah and put my arms around her. “Cold?”

“Not really,” she says, smiling. “But you can leave your arms. I see why you like it so much up here.”

We sit like that for a while, Sarah in my arms, both of us gazing out over the Chicago skyline. This is one of those perfect moments, the kind I need to save up and remember for when things get bleak.

And then, because maybe Sarah is right and bad timing is one of my Legacies, a dark shape detaches from the night sky and zooms towards us.

“What is that?” Sarah cries.

“I don’t know,” I reply, springing to my feet and instinctively putting myself between Sarah and the black blur that’s descending on us. I fire up my Lumen, feeling some comfort in the fresh heat, ready for anything.

The dark form slows down. It’s definitely a person, I realize. The shape lands gracefully on the other side of the roof, its arms raised in a gesture of peace.

“Five.”

“Hey, guys,” Five says. “You’re up late. Did I scare you?”

“What do you think?” Sarah asks, gesturing at the fireballs still held in my hands. On edge, I finally let them dissipate. Five, wearing a black sweatshirt and pants, pulls down his hood so I can see his apologetic face.

“Shoot. Sorry. I didn’t think anyone would notice.”

I legitimately thought we were under attack for a second there, so my words come out harsher than I mean them to. “What the hell were you doing?”

“Just flying around. Sometimes I like to see how high I can go.”

I try to think of a response that won’t make me sound too bossy. I’m all for training, but flying around the city of Chicago seems like a pretty stupid idea. Hiding in plain sight is one thing; hiding while teenagers soar through the air around your base is another.

“Aren’t you worried someone might see you?” Sarah asks, taking the words right out of my mouth.

Five shakes his head. “No offense, Sarah, but you’d be surprised how little your people bother to look up. Anyway, it’s night and I’m in dark clothes. Trust me, guys, I’m cautious.”

“Still, there are cameras to think about, airplanes, who knows what else,” I say, trying not to sound like I’m lecturing.

Five sighs deeply and holds out his hands, like he’s sick of arguing. On the heels of his run-in with Nine earlier, I guess he doesn’t want to make any more trouble. “I’ll stop if you want me to,” he says. “You should know that I’m getting better at it, though. Covering more distance. In fact, I could probably just swoop down to the Everglades and pick up my Chest, be back before breakfast.”

I like this can-do attitude from Five; he suddenly doesn’t seem like the kind of guy we need to worry about passing up training for video games. Still, I shake my head. “We’ll go as a team, Five. We don’t need to do anything alone ever again.”

“Safety in numbers. You’re right.” Five yawns, stretching his arms out. “All right, I’m gonna turn in. The Lecture Hall first thing tomorrow, right?”

“Right.”

Once Five has marched downstairs, I turn to Sarah. She’s gazing up at the night sky, a tiny smile playing at her lips. I take her hand.

“What do you make of that?” I ask her.

She shrugs. “If you could fly like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Only if you could fly with me.”

Sarah rolls her eyes, elbowing me gently in the ribs. “Okay, cornball. Let’s get to bed before anything else crazy happens.”

“Are you sure you’re up for this?”

Ella nods her head as we walk towards the Lecture Hall together. She looks pale, dark circles under her wide eyes, like she’s just gotten over a horrible illness. She made it through last night without any nightmares or screaming fits, but she still looks drained.

“I can do it,” Ella says, straightening up.

“No one will think any less of you if you sit out,” I tell her.

“You don’t have to baby me,” she replies sharply. “I can train just as hard as the rest of you guys.”

I nod, dropping the argument. Maybe some physical activity will be good for Ella. At the very least, it should tire her out enough so that she’ll get some real rest.

We’re the last two to arrive in the Lecture Hall. Everyone stands in the middle of the room, dressed in workout clothes. Malcolm sits behind the Lectern’s console, examining the glowing buttons and levers through his glasses.

Nine claps his hands when he sees us. “All right! Let’s get started! Capture the flag time, baby! The ultimate test of teamwork and, um, ass-kicking ability.”

Six rolls her eyes and Five stifles a groan. I stand next to Eight, who flashes me a quick smile. I hope we end up on the same team.

“The rules are simple,” Nine says. He gestures to the opposite ends of the gym where he’s mounted a pair of makeshift flags made out of old Chicago Bulls T-shirts. “The first team to grab the other team’s flag and bring it back to their side is the winner. You’ve gotta be holding the flag at all times, no telekinesis. Also, no teleporting the flag back to your own side—ahem, that means you, Eight.”

Eight smirks. “No problem. I like a challenge.”

Piled on the floor are four Mogadorian rifles that I grabbed on our way out of Arkansas. Figured we might want them for just this kind of exercise. I notice Sam eyeing them hesitantly. “What are those for?” he asks.

“Each team is going to get two guns,” explains John, jumping in. “Malcolm has modified them so they’re nonlethal. Like stun guns. We always end up using their own guns against the Mogs in battle; I figured this would be good practice.”