The Games Heroes Play (The Academy Trilogy)

by Joshua DeBenedetto

  “Decathlon, this way.” Jay hurried over to the park bench where the new set of supplies sat. To his surprise he arrived to find an array of artillery, with all sorts of guns. He was relieved to discover that the ammunition consisted of paintball pellets, and immediately he felt silly for his moment of panic.

  “We’re in a war zone this time,” Hammer explained, “and these are the weapons we have at our disposal. We can win this game in one of two ways, either eliminate all the players from the other team, or capture a set of four bases around the city. If you are hit with a paintball, you are required to jump into the closest manhole, which is a tunnel leading out of the arena. It means you are out of the game if you are hit, so don’t get hit. And don’t pretend you weren’t hit either and keep shooting, because they have cameras set up all over the city, and any team that doesn’t follow the rules will be disqualified. We have a map to go by this time, and the closest base is at the end of the park, close enough that it’s a given that we will have it held. There is also a base right near the opposite door where the orange team would be coming in, and two more in between. We will view the map with their base as north, and ours as south. I will lead teams B and C to take the east base, Duke will lead teams D and E to take the west base. Once a base is established and secure, one team is to remain there to guard the base and the other is to move towards the opposite one to assist. Once both those bases have been established, we will divide our forces accordingly to keep some guarding, and to move in for an assault on their last base. First priority is not to get hit, second priority is to hit them. The bases are third priority, until we reach the final assault, then taking the base becomes first priority. Team A will check back at the east and west bases once they have the information they need. Team F will fortify and guard this base with all he’s got.”

  With the plan in place, they each took the weaponry they desired, and began to move out. Jay decided he would like as much firepower as he could get, so once everyone else had chosen what they would like, Jay picked up the park bench and brought it over to the base with the rest of the supplies on it. There was a considerable amount left, but Jay did not want to leave any behind. If he would be their last defense, he wanted to make sure it would be a good one.

  TWO HOURS INTO the simulation, Jay found himself still unvisited by either team. He had already boarded and blocked up all the windows and doors, leaving no way of an enemy getting into the base without a few Titans taking time to unblock something. Jay figured this would be good, because he would be able to fire at them from the fourth floor windows while they tried to get in. The base was a total of four floors high, and the top floor was all one room, making it easy for Jay to run around and check all sides. He had been meticulous to constantly check the windows for a while, but he was beginning to get tired of standing there all alone. He was also beginning to feel weaker and slower, and that made him nervous. If my abilities go out now, there’d be no way I could hold off an attack.

  Jay continued to check the windows, this time moving at a fast walk. He paused when he got to the window that faced north. If only there weren’t so many other buildings, I might be able to see some of the other bases, Jay thought to himself. As he was looking forward out the window, the corner of his eye caught sight of some movement in the fourth story window of the building across the street, and he ducked out of the way just in time as a paintball flew in, narrowly missing his head.

  Jay wanted to see who he was up against, so he moved quickly out of sight to a different window. As soon as he poked his head out, another paintball flew his way from a different window, and once again he was barely missed. Jay had been so proud of his plan of blocking all the entrances, planning to rain paintballs on anyone who tried to break their way in, but he never thought that he would be the victim of cover fire. If they had a Titan down there working on the barricade, it would not be long before they could get in if they are not resisted. Jay ran down the stairs to the first floor to check the barricades, and to his relief they were still there. From what he could hear from the outside, he could tell there was someone trying to clear rubble from the outside, but without much success. Jay could tell from the changing position that it was a Hermes out there trying to clear the rubble, not a Titan. He felt better, as he knew it would take a Hermes a long time to get those heavy objects cleared enough for someone to get inside.

  Jay ran up to the third floor. He only had boards over those windows, and he could still see through the cracks between the boards. He could see two Hermes in the upper windows of the building across the way, each aiming into the two north facing windows of Jay’s base. He looked around as much as he could see, through the cracks in the boards facing each direction, and it appeared that all that were around were the three Hermes. Good, no Titans. Jay was a little relieved, although he knew he was still not in a great position.

  For a while Jay more or less just waited there. He would avoid the windows, and from time to time he would hold a board up in front of a window in order to draw off some fire. He figured if he did this long enough they would begin to run low of ammunition, but Jay soon realized they must have plenty with them, as they showed no signs of running low. Three hours into the game found Jay still trapped inside the base, with those Hermes firing in at him while another tried to find a way into the base.

  Jay went down to check on the progress of the Hermes who was clearing the debris, but when he got there he realized the sounds coming from outside the walls were too loud to be the sounds of moving these items out of the way. It sounded more like they were just throwing things at the pile. Jay moved to the second story and looked out through the boarded window, and immediately noticed what the Hermes had been doing. Instead of clearing the pile, they were making it bigger. Realizing they could not clear a path to the lower entrances, they decided to build the pile up and use it to climb to the second story windows. Jay hadn’t thought of this possibility before, and he realized they did not need a Titan for that – a Hermes could easily knock a board off of a window.

  Where is my team? Jay wondered. Then the range of possibilities began playing through his head. Maybe they have already been hit. Maybe I am the only one left. Maybe the other team is also defeated, except for these three. Could this be the final battle?

  Jay began to worry that the game might be coming down to him once again. Once again, he was not pleased with his odds. There were less of them this time, but both his mental ability and his strength were all but ineffective at this point. The only one of his abilities that he could feel holding strong now was his speed, but that made this a face-off between three Hermes and one Hermes. Jay moved back to the third floor, and tried to think of a plan. He decided the best he could do at this point was to fire back, and hope he got lucky. Jay held up the board, and a few more shots hit it. Then he lifted a gun so the nozzle was facing out the window and quickly began to fire. He took care to keep as much of his arm hidden as possible, because he knew a hit would be a hit, and his arm is just as vulnerable as any other part of him. He fired until that gun was out of ammunition, then quickly recoiled his arm back out of sight. Immediately a few shots followed, coming back in through the window. He knew those shots were not meant to hit him; they were fired to taunt him. He had fired wildly, and they were letting him know they had just as much ammunition to burn. Jay got another gun, and once again he lifted it and fired repeated out the window.

  Half way through his firing, the alarm sounded, signaling the end of the game. Jay looked down at himself to make sure he hadn’t been hit. Realizing he was still in the game, he looked out the window. All three of the invading Hermes were still there, unhit and eligible. Jay realized what must have happened just before the voice came on to announce it. “The game has ended, the green team has captured all four bases. Please make your way back through the door from which you entered. Thank you for participating in this year’s simulation games!”

  Jay was elated. They weren’t defeated after all!
He thought with relief. Jay ran down to the second story and pried off the boards from one of the windows. He looked out at the pile of debris, and realized just how close the Hermes were getting to being able to enter. He jumped out onto the pile, and climbed down to the ground.

  As he reached the ground he saw a few of his team mates coming around the corner of a building towards him. There were three of them there, and they were smiling just as widely as Jay was himself. He ran over to greet them.

  They told Jay that they were the three left from guarding the two middle bases, but that there would be more coming back from the far base. As they waited for the remainder of their teammates, they told Jay of all that had happened to them. One Titan, after an assault on his base that left him the last one standing from either team there, decided to create scarecrows to post at the windows. He explained how the base he was guarding was particularly dark, so he built fake people out of pieces of debris and placed them at every window. “A few Hermes came by and fired at some of them, but after I returned fire from a different window they ran off,” he explained with pride.

  The other two, a Hermes and a Titan, had managed to hold their base by mere force. They said they simply fired back at anyone who came, and were able to get the orange players before the orange players got them.

  Jay learned that the middle bases were taken quickly, and once acquired a team of four were left in each of them, while the rest went off to join Hammer for the attack on the last base.

  Jay began to explain his scenario, and how the three Hermes were kept at bay. While he spoke, they noticed a group of four coming their way. There was Hammer, leading three more of their team members back. The pride on her face was radiant, and Jay knew she was satisfied with this win.

  Once they were all together, they began walking back, still swapping their war stories. Hammer mentioned how they had split the forces in three, with one group making a frontal assault while two smaller groups tried to sneak around the back. She mentioned how the front group was nearly depleted when they received the reinforcements coming from the center bases. The sneak attack from the back did not flush them out as Hammer had hoped, but it did trap a large group of them inside, and it was then a matter of picking them off whenever one would get too close to a window.

  “They made the same mistake we did, they clumped,” Hammer said with excitement. “When we first arrived a group of them were in a circle in front of the base, and all we needed to do was fire at that circle and we were sure to hit someone. That gave us a quick man advantage.”

  Jay was sorry to see that Duke was nowhere to be found. He was hoping Duke would be able to see the victory from the inside. The other Prometheus, who was part of the group who survived from the far base, soon began recounting Duke’s story, and it was not a sad one. “Duke was on fire out there! He held up a blanket reading at least twice as long as I’d ever seen him do before, and whenever one of them even thought of poking their head out a window for a shot, he was ready! He must have taken out at least six of them on his own. He would have gotten more if he hadn’t become their main target. One of them had gotten on the roof, and we didn’t realize there was a way onto the roof, so we weren’t looking there. The player was able to get a few shots off in Duke’s direction before being noticed. Unfortunately one of the shots landed. By that point there were only two of them left in there though, so I think Duke knew we were going to win this one.”

  Jay could not help but wonder what would have happened if he had lost his base. It appeared that those three Hermes were the last members of the orange team left standing at the end of the game, but if they had gotten him and taken the base, they would have had a good vantage point. Jay was sure his team would have left some guarding the other bases, so only three or four would remain to try and take this one.

  With the excitement all around him, he decided not to think any more about it for the moment. Once they got outside of the arena, the thirteen members of their team who had been eliminated were waiting still covered in paint, and gave a loud cheer upon their arrival.

  They returned to the dining hall without cleaning up first, and spent the whole night together talking and celebrating.

  CHAPTER 12

  JAY COULD NOT decide if he regretted the all-nighter they had just pulled once classes began the next morning. He still felt pretty good, and was glad to have been there to celebrate with them, but he had trouble concentrating on his classes as it was, and skipping a night’s sleep after the stress of the game was not helping. He sat through his classes out of formality, then moved on to get lunch with Michael as he always did.

  Jay wanted to ask for Michael’s opinion as to why his powers had failed him the day before, but there were constantly people around that Jay did not want to overhear. At this point there were only four teams left, and although the other three are all ranked much higher than they were, that only made them all the more feared. People seemed to know what to expect from the other three teams – a group of talented Hermes, Titans, and Prometheus, who had trained and organized thoroughly. With the green team, people were unsure what their story was. They had now won two games, and the victories were different for each. The first consisted of their first year recruit outmaneuvering the whole team on his own, and the second saw very little of him, with the rest of the green team overpowering the orange team at every turn. Jay knew their victory was not as swift as the rumors made it out to be, but Hammer never corrected the tales, so Jay decided he would not either.

  After lunch, they got together for yet another practice. None of them had slept the night before, and it was beginning to show. Hammer was the only one who looked fully awake, and with her running the practice, they knew it would not be any lighter than if they were well rested.

  “Before we start, I want to congratulate all of you for a fantastic game yesterday,” Hammer began. “But now that game is over, as are the celebrations. Now we need to focus on the next game coming up next weekend. The two teams we have faced thus far were not bad teams, but now we have only the best teams left ahead of us. Our next game is against one of the big four, and if we win that, we will most likely be up against the red team in the finals. We cannot ease up now. I heard the stories from the groups I was not a part of, but I don’t want stories, I want reports. What worked well, and what could we improve on?”

  The Titan who had held the east base using scarecrows spoke up. “Tricking them worked well. I figured I had the weakest post, so I made it look like the strongest, and they stayed away. If we can’t outmuscle these teams, maybe we can outthink them.”

  “Outthink Brain? That would be like a slug trying to outrun a Hermes,” Duke’s Prometheus friend retorted.

  Hammer was not happy with this remark. “With that attitude we might as well just give up. Brain is not unstoppable. What else is there to report?”

  “If we start taking a lead, we can’t get cocky.” It was Duke this time. Duke was the only one who did not change his shirt after their game the day before, and the big blue paint splotch was clearly visible. He wore it as a show of pride in their accomplishment. “I was doing well and I felt invincible, so I wasn’t thinking of maintaining a solid cover. I got cocky and allowed myself to be too much in the open.”

  “Good point Duke, and a great lesson. We need to remember our first game, where we were all but finished, but the game turned around and we won. These teams consist of the best students at this school, and they could turn a loss into a win just as easily if we let them.”

  Jay raised his hand. He did not want to admit to his shortcoming from the game, but he knew he had to, as part of the team. “I had a personal problem during the game yesterday.”

  “Yes, your mind reading was not functioning properly again.”

  “No, it was more than that. After a while holding the base, all my abilities disappeared. I could barely run, I felt weak, and I could see nothing at all around me mentally. I had no idea those Hermes were there until they began t
o fire at me.”

  The whole group looked at him in partial disbelief. It was Hammer who finally broke the silence. “All of them? Gone completely? Are they back now?”

  “Yes, definitely,” Jay assured them, “I feel great now.”

  “Good, we need you in top condition if we are going to stand a chance next weekend. We’ll have to experiment this week to figure out a way to keep your abilities around. My first assumption is that we’ll need to keep you active. From what I’ve seen so far, you appear to be in best shape when you are actively using your abilities – maybe we just need to keep you on the offensive line in the next two games.”

  Jay could see the rest of the team smiling and nodding at this idea. They seemed to like the idea of sending Jay against their opponents. What Hammer said made sense as well; Jay knew that he was at his best when he was pit up against powerful opponents. Somehow he felt like this was not the answer. He did not always lose his abilities when he was not active, in fact he had never lost his abilities since arriving at the school, with the exception of during the games. He also did not always have his abilities while he was active; during the game the previous day, he was still moving around and keeping pace with the game, but his abilities vanished. Still, being unable to come up with a better explanation, Jay decided this was probably the best place to start.

  THROUGHOUT THE NEXT week the team practiced rigorously, and Hammer made sure to test Jay’s abilities as they had never been tested before. She did not just keep the tests to practice times either, sometimes she would come up to him in the halls and place a heavy object on him from behind, or say “think fast” and throw objects at him to see if he could catch them in time, or pop up and ask him to quickly tell her what she’s thinking. She always tried to sneak up on him at these times, but his reading ability was always on track in the halls, so he was always able to see her coming. By the end of the week, they still had not figured out what caused Jay to lose his abilities, but they did learn one thing. They learned that he was all around more effective with his abilities when he practiced with a larger group. The more people he practiced with, the more weight he could lift, faster he could run, and from time to time the pictures in his head even got clearer.