The Games Heroes Play (8 page)

“I’m sorry,” Jay said, “I didn’t mean for it to break.”

“Don’t worry about it.  As far as your speed with the machine goes, you were not doing particularly well until that last movement.  I think I want to try something new, something to give you a reason to move quickly.  You moved quickly in defensive tactics, avoiding attacks from a Hermes, right?”

“Yes.  I saw him going for my shoulder, so I lowered it and scooped him up.”

“Scooped him up?”

“Yeah, I caught his arm and grabbed his legs.”

Hammer apparently found this amusing.  She called over one of the Hermes, who joined them quickly.  “Ok, here is the exercise we will try next.  Jay you will get three seconds to go wherever you’d like in the training room.  After those three seconds I will yell go, and my friend here will pursue you.  I will time the exercise to see how long you are able to keep away.  Try to avoid capture for as long as you can.”

Jay
did not
like this idea.  He was already out of breath from the previous two exercises, and this was an upper-class Hermes who would be chasing him.  Jay
did not
argue, though, and got ready to go.  On Hammer’s command, Jay took off for the other side of the room, and took his place behind some weights.  When Hammer yelled go, the Hermes took off at a quick speed
towards Jay.  Jay saw the Hermes coming, and after less than a second the Hermes was upon him.

“Stop!”
Hammer called.  She walked over, disappointed.  “Ok, Jay, I guess you are not a Hermes.  Thank you for coming out to our try out anyway.”

Jay
could not
decide whether to say thank you or sorry, but what came out was something completely different.  “One more
try
.”

Hammer and Duke looked at each other,
then
back at Jay.  “What makes you think you would do any better?”  Duke asked him.

“Well I was tired before the last one, and now I feel a lot better.  I’m also more awake now, and I have a better understanding of…of how fast I would need to go.”  Jay
was not
sure why he was trying to convince them to let him try again.  Maybe it was because he felt foolish, and wanted to redeem himself.  Maybe it was because he thought Duke would respect him more if he showed more effort.  These could have played a part, but really Jay was just starting to feel faster.  He felt his energy rise, as it did during that class when he beat the Hermes, or during that first day when he kept up with the quick tour of the school.  Jay did not want to show them what he could do, he wanted to show himself.

“Ok, one more time
,”
Hammer responded with a shrug.  “Ready, go!”

Jay dashed off again, going back to the far wall and waiting by it.  He arrived much faster than he had anticipated, and had to wait for Hammer to let his pursuer go.  As soon
as the Hermes was released, she came straight for Jay.  As she neared however, she
slowed down, as Jay expected, to avoid hitting the wall.  This gave him
the time he needed, and when her
hand reached out
to tag him, he ducked under her
arm and dashed away, taking his place behind the
newly broken machine.  He turned to see the Hermes already in pursuit.  When the Hermes reached him, he looped around the machine, and ran off in the direction of the wall again.  This time he
was not
quick enough to position himself against the wall, so instead he jumped at the wall and kicked off, in the opposite direction, flying over the head of the Hermes and halfway across the room.  An impressive move, but not the smartest one; this put him at the mercy of gravity, and as he fell towards the ground he looked back to see the Hermes quickly approaching his position. 
She
was nearly to him when he landed, and being unable to get a footing to run away quick enough he instinctually grabbed the closest thing he could reach and pulled it in front of him to block the Hermes.

“Stop!”
  Hammer yelled once again. 
But I was never touched,
Jay thought to himself.  Then he looked forward to see what he was holding in front of himself to block the Hermes with.  There in his hands, being lifted clearly off the ground, was a treadmill.  In his surprise Jay dropped the treadmill, which fell to the ground with a loud bang. 

Everyone around had stopped what they were doing, and were looking over at him.  Hammer walked over to where he stood with wide eyes and a grin as if she had just won the lottery. 
“Prometheus…Hermes…and Titan?
  Who are you?”

“My name is Jay…I…I…”

“Well, Jay, I have to ask, could you please be on our simulation team?”

CHAPTER 8

DUKE AND JAY got back to the dorm room in time to see the rest of the students just starting to get up.  Hammer had told everyone in the practice room, all of whom were members of her simulation team, not to speak or hint at what had happened that morning to anyone.  “As powerful as Decathlon is, he is even more powerful as long as the other teams think he’s just a talented first year Prometheus.  Don’t tell anyone anything about this
,”
s
he had instructed them.

When Jay told Michael he had been invited onto a simulation games team, Michael just shook his head.  “Careful, Jay, move any faster and you’ll be graduating before the
year’s
out.”

Jay
did not
have much time to revel in the excitement of his position.  Starting that evening, he began extra lessons, where he met privately with Duke, Hammer, or a Hermes nicknamed Hummer to work on one of his abilities.  It
did not
take long for Jay to realize that Hammer and Hummer were good friends.  Each one claimed they got their name first; when Jay asked Duke about this, Duke said nobody knew for sure.  “They just showed up for classes one day calling each other those
names,
and the names stuck.”

Jay
did not
mind the extra lessons for the most part.  Duke was a good teacher, and Jay was happy to be on his good side again.  Hummer was fun to work with, and even when she was working him hard she would make it seem more enjoyable by humming a lively tune for them to work by.  It was clear why she got the name she had.  Hammer was the difficult one, constantly pushing Jay to lift more, or testing him to see how much he could carry while
running,
or how well he could mind read while lifting. 

The big problem Jay found was that he was unable to spend as much time studying for his classes, or hanging out with Michael.  He hung out with Michael for a while during the try-outs, but once those ended and Michael did not make a team (as Duke had predicted), practices became Jay’s life.  He still saw Michael during classes, and they got lunch together each day, but Jay was sorry he could not keep up their relationship as it had been.

“Don’t worry about it,” Michael said to him over lunch one day, after noticing Jay’s thought on the topic.  “I know how much these practices are taking out of you, and I realize you only have so much time in each day.  Besides, in a few weeks the games will be over, and you’ll be free to teach me all those cool tricks you’re learning.”

Jay could tell Michael
was not
as carefree about the topic as he was acting, but nevertheless it made him feel a little better about the situation.  They decided to drop the issue for the time being.

“Hello Jay.”

Jay recognized the voice, even though he hadn’t heard it since his first day at the Academy.  He turned around, and sure enough there was
Zahrah
with a heaping tray of food. 
“Hey
Zahrah
!
  How have you been?  Would you like to join us?”

Zahrah
nodded and took a seat next to Jay. 

“So how are the Hermes classes treating you?  I haven’t seen you around at all!”  Jay
was not
sure why he was so excited to see her again.  He somehow felt as if she were a breath of fresh air from the stress of all he had been dealing with; a familiar face that he
did not
associate with training or studying.

“They haven’t been too bad thus far,”
Zahrah
responded, “although I’ve certainly been busy.  It seems like every moment of my day is filled with running from place to place.”

“Well then I guess it’s a good thing you’re a Hermes
,”
Michael chimed in from Jay’s other side.

Jay was surprised to hear Michael’s comment.  He had almost forgotten momentarily that Michael was still there.  “I’m sorry, Michael, this is
Zahrah
, we met on our first day.  We were the two students to arrive late. 
Zahrah
, this is Michael, he is a fellow Prometheus.  We have all the same classes and share a bunk bed.”

Michael reached out and shook
Zahrah’s
hand. 
“Nice to meet you.
  Most people call me Snake, not Michael.  So are you the one who taught Decathlon here how to move?”

Zahrah
looked back at Jay in surprise. 
“Decathlon?
  You are Decathlon?”

“Yes, I am,” Jay responded simply.

“Is it true that you are bot
h a Prometheus and a Hermes?” s
he asked eagerly.  Jay nodded. 
That’s not all, h
e thought to himself.

Zahrah
smiled, “I guess this explains how you kept up so easily during that tour.  I had heard about this first year named Decathlon, but I had no idea that…”

“Decathlon!”

Jay looked up to see Duke putting his tray down across the table from them.  He
was not
smiling, and was looking wearily at
Zahrah
.  “Decathlon, I thought I should warn you to be careful what you say around the enemy.”

“What are you talking about?”  Jay
did not
catch on to what Duke could be referring to.  In what way could
Zahrah
possibly be an enemy?

“This girl here’s name is
Zahrah
.  She’s on the red team.  We don’t want them getting any information about us or our strategies.”  Duke said all this without moving an eye from
Zahrah
.  Jay knew Duke was harmless, but he
did not
like the way he was watching her.  Jay was surprised to hear that
Zahrah
had made a simulation team, but that was something he could ask her about later.  For right now, he needed to defuse Duke.

“Duke,
Zahrah
is the first friend I made here at the Academy.  We were not talking about the simulations games at all, and in fact neither of us knew the other was even on a team.”

“She knew,” Duke responded, still looking at
Zahrah
.

“You did?” Jay was surprised to hear Duke say this, but as soon as Jay questioned it he noticed the picture in his own head that must correspond to
Zahrah
.  Sure enough, she did know.

“I didn’t know when I sat down.  It was when I discovered you were Decathlon.  I had heard you were…gifted…and that you were on
the
green team.  I had no intention of getting any unfair information out of you.”

Jay believed her, and the pictures he saw of her thoughts gave him no reason to think otherwise.  Duke was not as easily convinced.

“I should go
,”
Zahrah
said, as she gathered her meal and rose to leave.

“
Zahrah
, you don’t have to leave
,”
Jay protested.

“No, I should.  It was great catching up with you, and I look forward to seeing what you can do when we see each other in the games.  Maybe when the games are over we can catch up more fully.”

“That would be great.  I’ll catch you later.”

Zahrah
laughed, “
from
what I’ve heard, I’m sure you will.”  With that she left. 

Before Jay could turn around, he noticed Duke’s thoughts rising up.  Duke was disappointed, and a little angry.  Jay turned to look at him, and could immediately see his face showed the same emotions.  “We have nothing to worry about from her
Duke,
she’s not one to be a spy.”

“She knows you’re a Hermes
,”
Duke responded with frustration.

“Everyone knows he’s a Hermes
,”
Michael retorted. 
This isn’t the time,
Jay thought loudly.  Michael got the message, and went back to eating. 

“It is true, Duke
.  Word of what happened in my Defensive T
actics class has gotten around.  Honestly, I think the fact that it is being hushed up is just causing the rumors to become larger than the truth.”  Jay hoped this would calm Duke down, but instead he became more upset.

It took a few moments before Duke was calmed down enough to speak. 
“Team meeting in our usual practice room in five minutes.”

“I have class in ten minutes…”

“Then you’d better be on time so we can get through things quickly
,”
Duke said, grabbing his food and leaving.

Before Jay left the table, Michael leaned over with a big smile.  “Remember Decathlon, schoolwork, sleep, and even your friends are unimportant
compared to ‘the game’,” h
e jo
ked,
then
sarcastically added, “a
t least Duke isn’t taking this too seriously.”

Jay smiled back at Michael,
then
left for the meeting.

WHEN JAY ARRIVED, Duke was the only one waiting for him in the practice room.

“Where is everyone else?”  Jay asked Duke, a little weary that Duke might be up to something.

“I realized I didn’t have time to get a group meeting together, so I’m just going to talk with you myself.”

“Listen, Duke, you have nothing to worry about…”

“No, Kid, you listen.  I realize it’s tough to avoid talking with a young lady, especially since you don’t seem to talk to women outside of the team very often.  No, I haven’t been following you, it’s just pretty clear that most of your time is spent either with classes, training with us, or with the Snake.”

With the manifestation of three abilities in such a short period of time, it is true that Jay had not been thinking at all about women. 
I have much more important things to worry about
, Jay thought.  It bothered Jay a little that Duke felt the need to give him this pep talk, although he did enjoy hearing Duke call Michael “the Snake”.  His tone of voice was no longer an insult when he said this, but rather a reference to a name; a definite improvement.

Duke continued.  “Kid, what you do, and who you spend your time with is your business.  The problem here is that red team is expected to win this thing hands down.  The only people who don’t believe that their victory is a sure thing, from what I can see, are the members of our team.  I don’t know how you’ll do when game time arrives; you are a force to
be reckoned with considering
your physical and mental ability, but being a first year you are still not refined.  Games aside though, you have already contributed substantially to this team by giving everyone hope.  Before you started coming to practice it was like our team was in this out of formality. 
Once you arrived, and everyone realized we had a major secret weapon in our pockets, they began to wonder if we actually stood a chance, and have begun to work harder and reach for that big win.  I don’t want to ruin your chances with that girl, but I also don’t want to see our team crumble before the games even start because word gets out about all you can actually do.”

Jay wanted to argue with Duke.  He wanted to tell Duke to mind his own business, and that this was just a game.  The problem was that Jay realized Duke was right.  Maybe this was just a game, but it was a game that all the students held in high regard.  It was an opportunity for them to prove what they could do, as individuals and as a team.  And for many, it was one last opportunity to prove their worth before graduating.  “Duke, let’s win this thing.”

Duke smiled at Jay.  “Thanks kid.”

“Can I ask you just one question though?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“I’ve been wondering this for a while.  All the other upper level students have nicknames, and most of the first years already do too.  Why don’t you?”

Duke laughed.  “Actually Decathlon, Duke is my nickname.  I guess when I am tracking thoughts I put my nose in the air like a dog.  I’m glad Duke was the dog name that stuck, because at first I was called Rex.  I don’t know, Rex just doesn’t sound as cool as Duke.  My real name is William.”

“William? 
Really?
  You don’t look at all like a William.”

“Yeah, well, that’s my name nevertheless.  Do me a favor and keep it to yourself though.  People know me as Duke, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

“Don’t worry William, you can count on me.”

THE FIRST CHANCE Jay got, he went to the announcements board near the dorms where the team lists were posted.  After tryouts had ended each team posted who would be on the team on these boards, and they had never been taken down.  Jay looked at the sheet for red team, but
Zahrah’s
name
was not
there.  Instead, the list was organized by their nicknames.  It hadn’t occurred to Jay to find out what her nickname was.