The Games Villains Play (12 page)

“Whatever the case, I have to follow the sheet, and the sheet says you don’t have a room.  You’ll have to find somewhere else to practice.”

CHAPTER 1
1

DONNY WAS FURIOUS
.  His team needed to practice, but somehow the rooms ended up reserved by the administration, and his team was being left out.  Black, white, and gold teams, who had all been eliminated that day, somehow were being allowed to reserve rooms that night and the next day.  Donny went back to the practice rooms, but half the rooms were occupied,
and the other
half were
locked.

Donny walked down to the dining hall to get dinner and think.  Duke, having just finished his meeting, went over and joined Donny.  Donny quickly recounted to D
uke all that had just happened.

“That’s unaccepta
ble.  We have to tell someone.”

“Who could we tell Duke?  The
administration are
the ones who reserved all th
e rooms and blocked us out.”

Duke thought for a moment, and then got an
idea.  “I’ll be right back,” h
e said, and then ran out of the dining hall.  He returned a short while later with his frie
nd who he had been dining with.

“You said all nine of the other teams had a room reserved, which means the white team did as well.
Let’s use theirs
,”
Duke said.

“Would that be
alright?”  Donny asked the boy.

“Are you kidding?  The brown team not only beat us, they rubbed it in our faces after the match.  We’d love to help y
ou beat them if it’s possible.”

They went down to the practice room manager’s office, and Donny and Duke waited outside as Duke’s friend went in to get the room key.  He came out after a short time, keyless.

“He was skeptical at first, but being unable to find a reason to keep our reserved room from us, he said he’ll give us the key if the captain comes to get it.  I know whe
re she’ll be, I’ll go get her.”

“Great, Duke, you can go with your friend.  It’s getting close to practice time, so I’ll go wait in the practice room hallway to let the team know of the c
hange of plans as they arrive.”

Donny went back to the hall and waited, and his team quickly began arriving.  Not long after practice had been scheduled to start, Donny saw Duke round the corner, followed by his friend and the white team captain.  Donny could see the white team captain was torn over this, and did not like helping Donny, but she nevertheless handed Donny the key.  “I’m only doing this because I know
you can’t win anyway,” s
he said before letting go of the key.  “I never wanted you to win, but I want Sly to win even less.  For that reason a
lone, I hope you win tomorrow.”

“Thank you
,”
Donny replied, and before the words were fully out of his mouth she had turned around and was walk
ing quickly away down the hall.

Since the same room was reserved for the white team through the night and through the next day, Donny did not return the key when they were done that night, and they used the same room the following day.  The first thing Donny did was to name the players he had selected to face off in the first game.  He wished he could have used them all, but since they could only have a total of 21 students compete, he had to make a selection.  Donny had them run many situations, all based on the simulations they had run in practice, but now including the knowledge of whom their enemy would be.  They went over how they would work in each situation.  They went over how to stop a Hermes, and how to throw off a Prometheus.  The techniques were far from perfected, but at least there was a start.  Donny wished they could have had much more time to
prepare, but soon enough he found that they had run out of time.  T
he game would be starting soon.

When it was time for them to return the key, Donny had one of his players put on a white shirt before going to return the key.  Donny was afraid the professor would notice the scam, but when his player returned, Donny was inform
ed that there were no problems.

Donny allowed them all to go off and warm up in their own way, and told them to meet back at the arena in 20 minutes.  The game would start in 30.

SIXTY SECONDS UNTIL game time.

Donny felt a little nauseous.  He desperately hoped his team was ready for this.  The other teams were fighting for glory, but Donny was fighting for something much more; fo
r a chance to help his brother.

30 seconds.

He did
not
know how, but winning the games would help his informer to save his brother.  H
e needed to be able to do that.

10 seconds.

Donny’s hand was on the door’s ha
ndle, waiting for it to unlock.

3…

2…

1…

Click…

Donny threw the door open and ran to the table containing the directions for the game.  He scanned the directions quickly, and then took a brief look around.  The set up was similar to that of a desert, except without wind or heat, making it more of a sandy plain.  There were also rock formations scattered all around.  The equipment they were given contained two metal detectors, six shovels,
a
length of rope, a pocket knife, and a map.  Donny glanced at the map, then cut off a length of rope, tied the map and game directions to a nearby rock, and handed it to Lenny.  “Lenny, do you think you ca
n throw this onto the catwalk?”

Lenny looked at the package, then up at the catwalk
.  “Yes,” h
e responded.
 

While Lenny began throwing the rock up at the catwalk in the hopes of getting it to land up there, Donny turned to the rest of his team.  They were all waiting anxiously to know what they were supposed to do.

“Ok, all Prometheus, go out and find members of the other team.  Try to search their minds for a rock formation, and if possible a map image.  Do not trust anything from the minds of Sly, Glass, or Mirage; focus on the younger members.  Titans, go find a rock formation that looks like a big plus sign.  Guard that rock formation, and make sure the other team does not do any digging at or around that formation.  You four Hermes, go out in teams of two, one with a metal detector, and one without.  Check at each rock formation, and if you find something, look up at the ceiling to know where you are, and then come find me.  I will stay under the center north-south catwalk at all times, so run up and down that to find me.  The rest of the Hermes, go out and try to find their directions sheet and/or a map.  It will probably be held on one of them.  Also try to steal metal detectors and shovels.  If you can stop their searching, it would be a major advantage for us.”

“What is our
goal?”  It was Flash who asked.

“Our goal is to win.  You have your
assignments, now get to it.”

Each group ran off in their designated direction.  Donny could tell they were not happy with his answer,
but Donny could not help that.

“You’re sending them out blind?”  Duke asked after the rest of the team had left.
 

“Sorry Duke, but I’m sending you out blind too.  This is a rare situation where it is better if you
didn’t know what was going on.”

Duke gave a skeptical look, but apparently decided to keep trusting Donny, as he soon
ran off into the arena himself.

Donny began to run down the center of the arena, making sure to stay under the center catwalk, but also scanning the area around him at the different rock formations.  He was searching for one in particular, but as he ran and ran, the formation he wanted to find w
ould not show up.

Before Donny could find what he was looking for, the brown team found him.  Like a flash, the Hermes popped out of nowhere and knocked Donny to the ground.  He looked up and saw one coming at him.  He got ready to try a Hermes disabling technique, but at the last moment the Hermes veered off to the right, and Donny felt his feet get swiped out from behind.  The Hermes he saw had been a distraction, and the other used the opportunity to grab Donny’s feet and quickly rap them up.  Before Donny could counter, his arms were tied to his sides as well, and he was helpless.  The Hermes pair called out, and a group of Prometheus quickly a
rrived, with Sly at their head.

Sly came right up to Donny and brought his face down until they were an inch apart.  “You’re out of your league, little Napoleon.  Why don’t you just tell me where your orb is, and s
ave yourself a lot of trouble?”

Donny would not say anything.  This only seemed to make Sly smile even wider.  “Very well runt, I guess we’ll have to d
o this the fun way.”

Sly signaled to the other Prometheus, and they formed a circle around Donny.  The two Hermes remained on either side to hold Donny in place, and the Prometheus all began probing Donny’s mind.  Donny had expected that he would need to fend off the intrusions of some Prometheus, but he had
not
expected to have so many going at him so early on.  It
was not
long before one of th
em called out with what he saw.

“I got it!  It’s under a rock formatio
n that looks like a plus sign.”

Most of the Prometheus got ready to run off, but Sly stopped them, never moving his gaze from Donny’s.  “Wait, Glass and Mirage are both in Advanced Mind Distortion with this kid, and they both say he’s been doing well in there.  If we see that it’s under a plus sign, we can be sure that is one pl
ace where it certainly is not.”

The Prometheus who had called out turned red in the face.  “Sly, I am not an idiot; I know the difference between a dis
tortion and a legitimate read.”

“Keep probing, all of you.  Go as deep as you can, then go further.  I want you to pull everything out of this kids head.  Once we’ve learned all this runts deep, dark secrets, then I’ll be satisfied with the ro
ck formation we find in there.”

Donny did his best to look calm, but he was dreading this whole situation.  Donny did not want them to see the real rock formation their orb was hidden under, but if they discovered the secrets he held in his mind, the results would be catastrophic.  There was more than a simulation
game at stake here.  If they learned the truth about Jay, and about Donny’s secret informer, the school
would surely find out about it.

Donny struggled to bury his thoughts deep.  He could see them all focusing on him, staring him down.  Some began walking closer, trying to get a little more.  As hard as Donny tried, he began to feel his thoughts rising to the surface of his mind.  It was not the rock formation that was coming out, however, it was his memory that he had seen from the catwalk.  It was the burning message that had first told Donny that Jay was alive.  Donny felt sweat pouring down his face as panic began to set in. 
I need to do something, or they will get it all
, Donny thought.  He knew this thought would soon have been seen; soon there would be very little they
could not
see.  Donny closed his eyes
tightly, and concentrated hard.

Crash!!!

Donny heard the screams of a few Prometheus, the most notable of which came from Sly.  He opened his eyes, and could see that a few of the Prometheus around Sly were on the ground, some of them rubbing their eyes.  The rest of the Prometheus
circle were
backing a
way, looking up at the ceiling.

“WHAT THE H
ECK WAS THAT!!”  Sly exclaimed.

“That wa
s a warning
,”
Donny responded.

“What the heck was what?”  One of the Hermes asked who was still holding Donny.  Neither of they were af
fected by what just took place.

“The bolt of lightning!
  Where did it come from?”  Sly exclaimed, looking frantically from the ceiling to Donny and back again.
 

Both the Hermes looked confused.  Donny heard the murmurs of the Prometheus around, as they began to speculate on the event.

“He
does
have a power after all!”

“He’s mo
re powerful than even Jay was!”

“Yeah, at least Jay was limi
ted to the three known powers.”

“He almost killed us!”

Donny could feel that his thoughts were secure now.  None of the Prometheus dared to enter his mind, and even if they did, they had backed too far away from him now to get a deep reading.  A Herm
es suddenly ran up next to Sly.

“Sly, one of the other Prometheus got a reading from a passing Hermes.  The big Titan named Lenny apparently threw their papers up to the catwalk, so we won’t find the map down here.  Our Prometheus said the Hermes didn’t seem to know what was going on, except that there are a bunch of Titans guarding a rock formatio
n that looks like a plus sign.”