The Vindico

by King, Wesley

  Blue stun blasts rocketed back and forth across the long corridor in front of them, forcing James to press against the wall as he ran. One bolt sizzled disturbingly close to his arm. The Torturer and Sliver had by now joined up with Rono, and all three Vindico members were firing back at the protégés from the trap room door.

  The first of the League members descended the stairs, and at the sight of them, all three mentors fled into the room.

  “After them!” James shouted for dramatic effect.

  Everyone but Emily and Sam, who had agreed to stay behind and fire on any League members who didn’t enter the trap room, rushed in after them. As soon as James was inside, he fired up at the ceiling, and blazing sparks rained down. On the far side of the room, the Vindico members were already heading into the hidden chamber.

  James had a sudden flash of suspicion. “Hayden!” he shouted. “Keep that door open!”

  Sure enough, James saw Rono immediately lunge for the control panel to shut the door and trap the protégés in the room with the League. But Hayden blocked the door with an invisible barrier, and he ran into the chamber. James let everyone else go through the door ahead of him while he stayed at the entrance to the trap room to cover them.

  Just as the last person ran through the hidden door, the League members stormed into the circular room. James turned to run, realizing with a surge of fear that he might have waited too long.

  He sprinted for the trap room door as fast as he could, dodging a fierce barrage of lasers. Just as he was sure he would be shot down, he felt an invisible pull that yanked him across the room. James skidded into the shadowy chamber, and the door slid shut.

  “Thanks,” he said to Hayden.

  “You can hug me later,” Hayden replied, turning to the control panel. “It’s time to spring the trap.”

  He pressed a green button.

  James stood up and watched through a window, obviously a fake tile, as the door to the trap room closed behind the League members. Meirna, an older woman with dark, wrinkled skin and short black hair, suddenly turned right toward them, comprehension on her face.

  Hayden pressed a red button. Nothing happened.

  “Let’s try that again,” Hayden muttered. He pressed the button harder. Again, nothing.

  “What’s wrong?” Lana asked, leaning over his shoulder.

  “That’s a good question,” he replied, pressing the button repeatedly.

  “Did you test this thing?” Rono shouted.

  Hayden paused. “Well, not really.”

  “How could you not test it?” James snapped.

  “I just assumed it was finished! It looked finished.”

  “You idiots,” the Torturer said, shaking his head. “James, how did you let this moron take charge?”

  “He seemed confident,” James said quietly.

  Inside the room, the League members were walking purposefully toward the hidden chamber. Meirna pointed, and the entire wall began to tremble. Behind her, the Flame was still wielding an ever-growing fireball between his hands.

  “This wall isn’t going to last long,” Sliver said nervously. “Is there a way out of here?”

  “There is now,” the Torturer growled, and he turned, lowered his head, and charged right into the wall behind them. There was a loud crunch, and then he toppled backward.

  “I’m pretty sure we’re underground,” Hayden said. “But yes, there is a way out. I saw it in the designs.”

  “Now you tell me,” the Torturer grumbled, climbing back to his feet.

  Hayden pressed another button, and a door slid open beside them, leading into a dark corridor. “I think this leads back upstairs, in case something goes wrong,” he explained. “Like the rest of the plan not working. We better regroup with Emily and Sam and figure out a new strategy.”

  The vibrations grew stronger, shaking the ground beneath their feet.

  “Run!” Lana screamed, and they all took off down the corridor just as a massive fireball hit the chamber, sending cracks splintering along the wall.

  Lana led them down the corridor about forty feet until they came to a crude, concrete staircase. She raced to the top of the steps and pushed against what looked to just be a wall. A square section swung outward, and hurrying through the opening, they found themselves right back in the opulent main hallway.

  “Now what?” James asked, glancing back down the steps.

  “Deanna, can you contact Sam and Emily?” Hayden said.

  “I already did,” Deanna said. “They’re on their way.”

  “Oh.” Hayden shrugged. “Well, that’s all I’ve got. Can we fight them?”

  “We need to release Leni and Avaria,” Sliver told them. “It’s the only way we’ll have a chance.”

  Emily and Sam came up the first staircase they’d gone down and hurried over. Emily’s limping was growing ever more pronounced. “What happened?” she wheezed.

  “The trap room wasn’t quite finished,” Lana explained, glaring at Hayden.

  “You didn’t test it?” Emily asked him.

  Hayden held up his hands. “Well, where were all you people an hour ago?”

  “How you kids managed to ambush us, I’ll never know,” the Torturer muttered. “Hey, where are you going?”

  Sliver was sprinting down the hallway. “To get the others!”

  “Wait,” Hayden said, and then took off after him. “That’s a bad plan!”

  A massive, echoing explosion sounded from the secret corridor, and voices filtered up through the opening. The League was already through.

  The Torturer hastily closed the wall segment again. “That should hold them for about one second. Let’s go.”

  They ran after Hayden and Sliver but had just reached the lobby when the hidden wall segment exploded. League members spilled out into the hallway.

  “Hurry!” James shouted.

  They broke into a wild sprint across the lobby. Emily was lagging, so James dropped his pace to keep up with her. Stun blasts flew around them. The Torturer was hit in the back, but he just stumbled and kept running. Lana was the fastest, and she led them through the reinforced metal door and down into the basement prison. James waited until Emily had gone in, just narrowly avoiding a blue flash, and then he hurried after her. He closed the door and fired right into the panel, shorting out the controls.

  James had just reached the bottom of the stairs when the first League members began pounding on the door. Farther down the prison corridor, Sliver was pinned against the wall, held up by an invisible grip. Hayden was calmly standing in front of him as Lana explained the situation.

  “So you’re saying we do in fact need to let Leni out?” Hayden asked.

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  Sliver dropped to the ground, and the Torturer strode over to the cell door. As soon as it opened, Leni stalked out with Avaria and the Baron close on his heels.

  “You,” Leni hissed, starting toward Hayden.

  “Hey, Teach,” he mumbled.

  “You’re going to pay—”

  “Later,” Rono said. “The League is here. We have to do something.”

  “How about kill them all?” Avaria suggested, narrowing her eyes.

  “You can’t do that,” Lyle objected.

  Leni turned to him. “I suppose you wouldn’t like that, would you? Very well.” He waved his hand, and Lyle and Deanna flew into the cell. Avaria closed the door.

  All the protégés protested at once, aiming their rifles at Leni’s chest.

  He slowly raised his hands. “It needed to be done. Unlike some, they wouldn’t have fought their own teachers. Why would they? They won’t be arrested or killed, so they have no need. We’ll release them after the battle, and they can do as they please. Right now, we have more pressing issues. It’s time we end this war.”

  With that, he walked toward the stairs, ignoring the rifles that were still pointed at him. James glanced at the others, but none seemed willing to shoot.

  The res
t of the Vindico followed Leni, leaving the protégés alone.

  “I’m scared,” Sam murmured. His hair was matted against his sweating forehead, and his brown eyes looked watery. “I just want things to be normal again. I want to go to school tomorrow.”

  “Me too,” Hayden said, and everyone looked at him. “Well, not really. It just seemed like the right thing to say.”

  James sighed. “Let’s get this over with.”

  They all started for the staircase, and each step was accompanied by another pounding blow on the door, like a war drum calling them to battle.

  34

  “HAYDEN, COME HERE,” LENI SNARLED, BECKONING HIM TO the door.

  Hayden pushed his way through and stood beside Leni, two or three feet back from the reinforced metal door. Already, the center was beaten in only a foot from their noses.

  “What’s the plan?” Hayden asked.

  “Gather all the energy you have,” Leni told him. “Combine it with mine, and then we will blow this door open and charge.”

  A massive boom shook the door again, and the dent inched closer to their faces. Hayden almost fell backward, but Leni didn’t even flinch.

  “And then what?” Hayden said, straightening up again.

  “Then it’s everyone for themselves. Are you ready?”

  “Not really.”

  “Prepare yourself!” Leni said sharply.

  Muttering under his breath, Hayden began to collect his mental energy. He could feel Leni’s forces brewing beside him, swirling and expanding, and he merged into it. The fluctuating mass doubled, and the thick walls around them began to vibrate. Hayden had never felt so much power, even during Lyle and Deanna’s kidnapping. Leni’s wrath toward the League was heightening his strength.

  Just when their combined energy reached a breaking point, Leni and Hayden stuck out their hands and released it.

  The metal door burst off its frame and went careening into the hallway, smashing right through the far wall. A stunned Gali went with it. The concrete frame around the door had ripped apart as well, and chunks of debris flew toward the rest of the League members. Some of them were hit and went down. But the majority managed to avoid the attack, and they fell back in both directions, screaming out orders over the noise.

  Leni ran through the opening and turned right, spraying debris in front of him in a thick, impenetrable cloud.

  Hayden dashed to the left, and with a sharp wave of his hand, he sent Jada spinning through the air. The others streamed out behind him, and laser fire erupted everywhere.

  Lana somersaulted underneath a blast of fire, feeling the heat singe the back of her legs. She rolled back onto her feet, grabbed the Flame’s arm, and launched him down the hallway. As she did so, something hard smacked her across the back, and Lana tumbled to the ground.

  Glancing back, she saw the young League member Ceri walking toward her, clutching a long white staff. Ceri had just raised her weapon, ready to deliver a blow to Lana’s head, when Avaria appeared behind her. She took a running jump and kicked Ceri in the back, sending her flying right over Lana.

  “That’s twice I’ve saved you,” Avaria reminded her, and then went after the League member.

  As Lana climbed back to her feet, she saw Renda, a burly, muscular woman with superstrength, charging right for Sam. Sam didn’t notice the danger; he was locked in mental combat with Sinio, one of the League’s telepaths.

  Lana tossed her rifle to the floor, not wanting to shoot anybody again, and tackled Renda. They landed in a tangled heap, with Lana on top, but Renda placed her thick legs on Lana’s stomach and pushed violently. Lana hit the ground ten feet away. Managing to roll, she landed in a crouch, her hands flat against the carpet.

  “We don’t want to fight you!” Lana shouted over the noise.

  “You should have thought of that before you joined them,” she hissed.

  “Joined?” Lana said. “We had no choice! We were kidnapped!”

  “Were you forced to attack Sparrow?” Renda asked. “Or help abduct those children?”

  Lana hesitated. The truth was they hadn’t been forced. The Baron had given them the option to leave, and they had all stayed. Without even realizing it, they had chosen to join the Vindico. They had chosen to be the bad guys.

  “That’s what I thought,” Renda said coldly.

  But as she started toward Lana, a red blast struck her in the thigh, burning right through her uniform. She pitched forward to the floor, shrieking, and Rono shot Lana a thumbs-up before plunging back into the fray.

  Lana watched the black smoke rising from Renda’s leg. Just like it had from Septer’s chest.

  What have I become? Lana wondered, standing up again. But as soon as she did, she was blindsided by a wave of invisible energy, and she crashed into the wall.

  The Baron’s lobby was a scene of carnage. The walls, the statues, even the curving staircases were all being destroyed as flames, laser blasts, and invisible forces hurtled back and forth, obliterating the mansion.

  James heard an explosion and looked up to see the massive diamond chandelier dropping from the ceiling. He took a running leap to get out from under it and then watched as it shattered into a million pieces, the glass fragments biting into his exposed cheek.

  Wiping the blood off his face, James aimed his rifle and fired a stun blast at Meirna, who was fighting with Leni in the corner. The bolt dissipated in a haze of blue particles. She glanced at him, and in that moment Leni gained ground, pushing her backward.

  Let him deal with her, James thought. He spotted Emily trying to shoot down Peregrine by the front entrance, but the flying woman was too quick. James was halfway to Emily when he was hit in the ribs by a powerful stream of ice-cold water.

  In his shock, he dropped the rifle and saw a pale, slender woman with blue hair facing him from across the room. It was Blue, the League member he’d had a crush on since he was eight. This isn’t how I pictured our first meeting, he thought.

  Blue lifted her hands, and another blast of water rocketed toward him. This time, James ducked under the jet, and in the same motion he scooped up a big piece of drywall from the floor. Cocking his arm, he threw the chunk at her. It struck her in the right shoulder, exploding into dust, and she gasped and fell to her knees.

  James picked up his rifle and jogged over, prepared to stun her. She looked up at him with wide, ice-blue eyes, and he hesitated.

  “Are you going to kill me?” she asked, the fear evident in her voice.

  “No,” James said, taken aback. “I’m not a killer.”

  “Then why are you fighting with them?”

  James thought about that for a moment. He could see Emily grappling with Peregrine now as the League member tried to rip the gun from her hands. James shot one last look at Blue, and then he raced toward Emily.

  • • •

  Sam bent over, feeling sick. He had just waged a terrible mental battle with Sinio, neither able to gain any ground. Only an errant blast had ended the duel, striking Sinio in the arm and breaking his defenses. Sam had easily flooded in after that and overwhelmed him. His mental scream still echoed in Sam’s head.

  This isn’t for me, Sam thought numbly. I’m not a Villain.

  Before Sinio had fainted, Sam had glimpsed a vivid image of the man’s family in his mind: his two young daughters and wife, gathered around the kitchen table.

  It was like he was saying good-bye, Sam realized. He thought I was going to kill him.

  The nausea rose up again, and Sam teetered over to the wall to support himself. A few bodies lay strewn about him, including the Baron, who had taken a stun bolt to the head as soon as he came out of the doorway. Farther down, he saw Lana shakily getting to her feet, covered in dust and blood.

  They met eyes, and Sam could tell that she was thinking the same thing. It was time to end this, and not the way they planned. Sam had an idea. He sprinted down the hallway, heading for Sliver’s quarters.

  “Let…go,” Emily ma
naged, desperately holding on to her rifle.

  Peregrine abruptly shifted her weight, but Emily still held on, and they circled each other, meeting eyes.

  “You’re the one who helped kidnap Junkit, aren’t you?” Peregrine hissed. She tried to knee Emily in the stomach, but Emily leaned back, avoiding the blow. “You’ll pay for that.”

  A red blast sizzled only a few feet from their heads, and they both instinctively ducked. Smoke and dust spewed around them as the blast erupted into the wall.

  “I…had no choice,” Emily said. Peregrine was stronger than she was, and Emily’s fingers were slowly slipping along the metal. She kicked at the League member’s ankles, but Peregrine stepped over her foot.

  “No excuse,” she replied, and finally ripped the rifle out of Emily’s hands and spun it toward her. “You can have your sentence when you wake up.”

  But before Peregrine could pull the trigger, there was a blue flash, and she pitched face-first to the ground. Emily stepped aside, letting her fall.

  “Thanks,” she said as James ran up to her.

  “Anytime,” James muttered, his eyes on the body.

  Emily studied the ongoing battle. Sliver and Rono were propped against a huge, half-destroyed statue of a dragon, exchanging fire with someone down the left wing hallway. Avaria was circling a now-unarmed Ceri, the Flame already lying dead or unconscious at her feet. Leni had Meirna pressed flat against the wall, her arms pinned against her sides. But the Torturer and the Baron were nowhere in sight, and neither were Hayden, Sam, and Lana.

  “We should find the others,” Emily said anxiously, starting for the right wing.

  James grabbed her arm. “Emily, are you sure we’re on the right side?”

  She looked back. “Not really.”

  “Me either.”

  “Where’s Sam?” Hayden shouted over the noise.

  He deflected a blue blast into the wall and gestured sharply upward. Jada flew headfirst into the ceiling and was immediately knocked out. As soon as her limp body hit the ground again, the other member he’d been fighting, Noran, blanched and retreated upstairs.