I'll say one thing for Chad.
He's never subtle. When I told him we needed a diversion, I envisioned a fire in the jungle or a block of ice falling out of the sky. Instead, we were confronted with a bombardment so extreme that I wasn't even sure we'd survive it. Fireballs reigned down like meteorites, slamming into the ground. Some landed in the compound, but they seemed to be crashing down all over the island. Explosions shook the ground. The fireballs must have been setting off The Agency's traps.
I looked a little closer at the balls of ice. Some of them were rocks the size of footballs.
Huh?
Chad could control fire and ice. Dan could manipulate metals. So, where were the rocks coming from?
Brodie had the answer. 'There must be a high metal content in those rocks,' she said. 'Dan must be behind those.'
I nodded. Our ears were ringing from the attack. So much that I didn't notice the change in the fence until Ebony seized my arm.
'The electricity's off,' she said.
'Are you sure?'
Reaching out, she grabbed the fence and didn't turn into a barbecued chicken. 'Pretty sure,' she said, smiling.
It was one of the only times I'd seen her smile. She had such a pretty face. I wondered if—
Brodie dug me in the ribs. 'Will we keep moving?'
I nodded. Ebony turned a section of the fence into clear gas—probably oxygen—and we climbed through the gap. From there, we skirted across a short distance to take refuge behind a building. This gave us a clear view of the obelisk. In the back of my mind, I had a vague idea about how to destroy it. We'd get Ebony to turn it to helium or something, but we had to reach it first.
Two soldiers appeared from around a corner.
Surprisingly, they weren't human, but some sort of battle droid. Covered in a suit composed of rubber and Kevlar, and armed with rifles, they looked tough. Good thing we had Brodie. She sprinted across the clearing and slammed one in the neck. The other, she flung over her left shoulder and ripped its arm off.
'Nice job,' I said as Ebony and I started after her.
An alarm rang out loud and clear across the compound. A door burst open, and more battle droids poured through. I threw a boulder at them, but it didn't achieve much. More began appearing from buildings all over the compound.
They started shooting. Bullets flew in all directions as I threw up a shield. We advanced through the robotic army. Brodie grabbed robots and broke them apart as Ebony transformed a few into gas.
She turned to me. 'We're almost there!' she yelled, her voice like a chipmunk. She giggled. 'Sorry—helium.'
We were only a few feet from the obelisk when the ground shook beneath us. At first, I thought it was another barrage from Chad and Dan. Then I realized we were sinking.
'Watch out!' I yelled. 'It's—'
The ground swallowed us, and we fell about twenty feet into an underground cavern. I cushioned our landing while also deflecting bullets from the droids above.
Brodie yelled. 'Over here!'
The cave was roughly circular, with a slight overhang on one side. The gunfire was relentless as we took refuge. It was only when we were out of sight that the droids stopped firing.
That can't be good.
It wasn't. A metal ceiling slid into place, closing us off from the outside world. I dusted dirt from my face, annoyed with myself. I should have realized this was too straightforward.
'Any ideas?' Brodie asked.
'Surrender?' I suggested, not seriously.
'Wait a minute,' Ebony interrupted. 'We've got company.'
A door slid open on the other side of the cavern. Three battle droids appeared. They were different from the others: taller, but without weapons.
Fantastic, I thought. A break—finally.
I fired a series of invisible cannonballs at them, but nothing happened.
What—
I understood. This room was protected with that dampening field—zeno rays—that Ravana used against us.
That's not fair!Why does—
I stopped. Of course, it wasn't fair. This was a life and death battle designed to prepare us for…life and death. Ebony was the first to move. Crossing the cavern in seconds, she took on one of the droids, hitting it with a flurry of punches. We followed close behind. Brodie did well while I immediately got into difficulty. My droid slammed me across the face and sent me flying.
I kicked the legs out from under it and start hammering its head into the ground. It spun about, swept my legs out from under me, and I landed face first in the dirt. We rolled around on the ground before it straddled my body and started punching my face. Despite my attempts to deflect the blows, most of them still connected. How long could I—
The droid's head flew off, and it toppled over. I looked around to Brodie who was still finishing off her droid. The robot was finding it hard to fight back with no arms and legs. But the person who'd saved me was Ebony. She stood there, wielding the dismembered arm of her droid, which she'd just used it as a club to attack my opponent.
'How did you…what did…' I began.
'Did you sleep through basic training?' Ebony asked. 'What has Mister Brown been teaching you?'
'How to fly…how to break the sound barrier…' I said weakly. 'That sort of stuff.'
Brodie strode over just in time to see Ebony help me up.
'Having fun?' she asked.
'Absolutely.'
'Where to from here?'
We had to find the zeno emitters, but that only took a moment. They were speaker-like contraptions set into the surrounding walls. We tore them out. Then we peered up at the metal ceiling. We had to get through it first. Beyond it, a thousand of those droids lay waiting. I groaned, not relishing the idea of facing them.
Ebony shook her head. 'Forget that,' she said. 'There's an easier way out.'
'How's that?' Brodie asked.
Ebony touched the wall. Concentrating, a tunnel appeared in the rock. She continued forward, dissolving the rock to oxygen as we progressed towards the surface. Stopping just below ground level, she turned back to us.
'The mining industry would love you,' Brodie told Ebony.
The girl nodded. 'I'll be a miner if this superhero gig doesn't work.'
The ground started to shake again. Chad and Dan must have resumed their aerial bombardment of the island.
'What do you think is the best way to handle this?' Brodie asked.
I shrugged. 'Let's make an impact.'
Throwing a shield around us, we burst through the ground into the world outside. We were now only a few feet from the obelisk. The droids were still waiting for us to emerge from where we'd disappeared underground. They spun about and started firing immediately, but the bullets couldn't get through my barrier.
The racket was incredible, but what lessened it was Ebony slapping a hand on the obelisk and turning it to dust.
Yes! We've done it.
Except the droid's attack didn't subside.
'I thought they were supposed to quit once we took out the obelisk!' Brodie yelled in my ear.
I'd assumed the same thing too. It looked like we still had to get off the island. I flew us into the air. Leaving the droids behind, I took us across the jungle to where we'd arranged to pick up Chad and Dan. Minutes later, we were zooming across the water towards the mainland.
'You should have seen it!' Dan yelled. 'First, we blew up the island. Then these robots appeared, and we turned them to junk.'
'Molten junk in some cases,' Chad piped up.
Reaching the mainland, I thought we'd done a pretty good job. That thought was quickly put to the test, though, when we reached the beach. Twelve was waiting for us, and he looked more severe than ever. He solemnly congratulated us, which wasn't bad considering he'd thrown us in jail less than twenty-four hours before.
'Your mission was a complete success,' he said.
'So now we get some time off,' Chad said, nodding.
Twelve shakes his head. 'Unfortunately, not.'
I started. 'But Mister Brown said—'
'I'm sorry,' Twelve interrupted. 'Typhoid is moving sooner than expected. You fly out first thing tomorrow morning.' He studied each of our faces in turn. 'School's out.'