The Games Villains Play (19 page)

When and where should I meet you?

Go with your team, and see them through the door.  After the door is shut and the game has begun, meet me in front of Captain Williams’ office.  And
get there quickly.  It will not take them long to realize you are not in the game, and they will surely come right back once they discover it.

Can we rescue him ourselves?

There will be three of us.  I trust no one else with this.

I do.

Well I do
not
.  Tell no one.  We will do this alone. 
Any questions?

Yes.  Who are you?

There was a pause in the type.  The response Donny received was not what he would have hoped.

I am an old friend of your brother’s.

Donny noticed the faculty member in the far corner go around his own computer and do a few things in the back of it.  He then glanced over at Donny, and walked out of the room.  No more messages came.

CHAPTER 1
8

PRACTICES THAT WEEK
involved a range of events.
  Donny was unsure what his team would need to expect from Captain Williams, so he wanted to prepare them for anything.  Even though he would not be involved in the game, he wanted his team to be able to hold out as long as they could.  The longer they could keep the game going, the better the chances that Donny and his faculty informer
could successfully rescue Jay.

After practice that Wednesday, Donny waited for everyone else to leave like he normally did.  This time, however, Duke did not leave.  Instead, he stood off to the side waiting as Donny did.  Once everyone else had left, he m
ade his way over towards Donny.

“What’s up Duke?”  Donny asked.

“Is this a safe place to talk about something you woul
dn’t want anyone else to hear?”

The secrecy in Duke’s voice worried Donny.  Donny motioned for Duke to come with him, and the two of them made their ways over to the doorway.  Once they had reached the door, Donny turned to Duke.  “Ok, we can
talk here.  What’s the matter?”

Duke looked at Donny with an apologetic look, which was not the way Donny would prefer to begin conversations.  “Donny,” Duke began, “w
e know you’re up to something.”

“Who is ‘we’?”

“A few of us who a
re your most loyal supporters.”

This was not the best thing to hear. 
If they figured it out, the school must know as well.
  “Ok Duke, what do you know ex
actly, and how do you know it?”

“Well, as far as the how, we have been watching your room.  After the incident last week with the man trying to get to you at night, I decided it would be best to leave a sentry at your
door each night.  I couldn’t do every night myself, so I got a few together
whom I knew could be trusted.”

“Who?
  I want names.”

“
Zahrah
, Lenny
, Spark, Juan, and
Silverfist
.”

“Juan? 
Silverfist
?”

“Yeah.
  They are both first years, and they couldn’t
fend
someone off themselves, but I know they are loyal to you.  We figured they could hide nearby, and if someone showed up they could at least make a ruckus and wake everyone else up.  We needed
Silverfist
as well, since she is not on our simulation team.  We needed someone to watch during those times.  It was Ju
an who discovered your letter.”

Donny began to get angry. 
How dare they read my letter!
  But no sooner did the thought appear, than he realized he should not be angry with them.  If they were able to find it so easily, the school would too.  It was foolish of his informant to lea
ve such vital information open.

“We mostly kept a sentry at night, but we also wanted to watch during those hours when your room could easily be accessed.  We didn’t want anyone sneaking in and hiding in there.  Juan was keeping watch at one point when the rest of your dorm mates were
away,
and he saw the man walk into your room.  His shift was almost over, and I was to relieve him, so he figured he would wait for me.  Before I arrived however, the man left the room and walked quickly off.  Juan ran in and searched your area for
traps, and found your letter.”

“And he decided it was
within his rights to read it.”

“No, I arrived just
after he found it.  I read it.”

Donny could see that Duke was partially apologetic, but without regret.  Clearly Duke still thought it was the right thing to do for him to have read the letter.

“I’m sorry Donny, I know it was your letter to read, but I needed to know if they were going to try to draw you away somewhere.  We needed to be ready
if something were to go amiss.”

“If I needed your h
elp I would have asked for it.”

“No, you wouldn’t have.  Donny, we all remember the game against
Sly’s
team.  You took the whole weight of the game upon yourself.  That is your one weakness Donny, you would never ask for help.  We didn’t want to wait
around for you to regret that.”

Donny wanted to argue, but there was nothing for him to say.  He knew Duke was right, and no amount of arguing will change the fact that the secret is no longer just bet
ween his informant and himself.

“Ok, Duke, you have answered the how, but now I need to know wha
t it is exactly that you know?”

Duke gave a sigh.  “Not much.  We read the letter, but there was not much information there.  We went down to the computer lab, but we could get nothing from the heads of you or the other guy.  We know you are planning something, but beyond that, we know very little.  We suspect it is something against the school.  We think it’s the same man who tried to enter your room that other night, but whether he is with you or against you, the
way
the games have gone have us convinced that th
e school itself is your enemy.”

Donny had not
realized that his night attacker could have been the informant. 
He wasn’t coming to attack me that
night,
he was coming to tell me something. 
Then Donny remembered that the drinks of the administration had been drugged, and he realized it was not just to tell Donny something. 
He was coming to get me!  We were going to get Jay that night!
  Donny got a sick feeling knowing that he might have been able to save Jay sooner, but he decided it was
better that they had not, since many of the administration had not consumed the drugs after all.  Donny hoped the new plan was a better o
ne.

Donny was afraid the new plan might not work either.  His friends had foiled the last attempt while they thought they were protecting him, and now they might ruin the second attempt the same way.  “Thank you for caring about me, but I have this under
control.”

“I’m sure you do, I just want
to know what role I can play.”

“No role,
we need to do
this
ourselves.”

“Then do this yourselves, but not all of it, there
has to be something I can do.”

Donny was about to turn him down again, but thought better of it.  He realized there was something he needed Duke to do.  “Duke, I need you to lead the jade team against t
he administration on Saturday.”

Duke gave a sad look.  He knew how much Donny wanted to lead the team to victory.  “Alright, you can count on me.  I will lead the team, and we will record the first ever stu
dent victory over the faculty.”

“No, winning would not help.  We both know the only chance of winning would come from a fast paced game, but we need the game to be long.  Draw the game out as
long as you can.”

Duke nodded.

“Thank you
,”
Donny replied.

THE TWO OF
them eased the team into the leadership change.  They did not tell the team that Duke would be leading the game itself, but instead they simply had Duke run the practices, and stand in the command position for all the scrimmages and plays.  Friday night came, and their last practice came to an end.  The team was working smoothly under Duke, and Donny hoped their new cohesion would help them hold ou
t in the game the next morning.

Donny went to the dining hall after the practice.  He was far from hungry, but he did not want to draw attention to this fact, so he filled his plate with food, and sat down by himself.  From time to time people would wish him luck as they passed, and he would thank them formally.  There was one pers
on who stopped on their way by.

“Good luck tomorrow Donny.”

Donny looked up to see Jenna standing in front of him.  Donny had hardly seen her since their conversation on the way to the Academy, and he could tell she had gotten stronger since their last meeting, although she still did not look like the typical Titan.  Donny could see that she still wore the silver lifting gloves that had given her ability away when they last spoke. 

Looking at her silver gloves, Donny suddenly understood who the last member of Donny’s secret watch party had been.  “You’re
Silverfist
now, aren’t you?”  Donny asked, knowing the answer before it came.

“Yup, and you’re still a genius,” she responded with a big smile.

“Thank you
Silverfist
.  I appreciate your well wishes, and… everything else.”

“I hope you are able to show the school
who’s
boss.  If there is anything
at all that I can do to help…”

“No
,”
Donny cut in, then added, “thank you th
ough.”

She blushed,
then
walked off quickly. 

Duke’s right, I could never ask for help.

CHAPTER 1
9

DONNY COULD NOT
sleep that night.  Every noise, however small, grabbed his attention.  He could hear noises from time to time that he could not identify.  They were most likely the dripping of water in the bathroom, or the rustling of sheets from someone in the room, but he could never be certain that the sound was not someone coming to get him in the night.  He knew that the school’s best time to stop him would be during the night if they knew his plan, and he was not sure if his secret guards were still standing guard near his dorm room door.  He figured those from his team would most likely be trying to get as much sleep as possible before their match, but
Silverfist
had no reason to get a full night’s sleep that night.  Could she be
waiting outside to protect him?

The night dragged on and on, and finally it reached a time when Donny thought it reasonable to get up and get ready.  He got dressed with his typical simulation games clothes on over a regular set of clothing.  It would be too suspicious for him to carry an extra pair of clothes out to the arena with him, but he needed to be able to get back into the building, and he would surely stand out in his usual game outfit.  He would probably stand out either way, as everyone in the school knew he would be playing that day, but if changing clothes could improve his chance of getting by without being seen just
a little, it would be worth it.

The game was scheduled to begin at 0900, but Donny went down early, as he could think of nowhere else to go.  He was surprised to see Duke,
Zahrah
, Lenny,
and Juan already there waiting.

“You ready?”  Don
ny asked them as he approached.

“Are you?” 
Zahrah
asked nervously.  Donny could tell that Duke had at least told them that he wo
uld not be playing in the game.

“Yes, I am
,”
Donny responded with as much confidence as
he could bring himself to show.

“When the rest of the team arrives, let me do the talking.  I have an idea to help keep the faculty off your trail for a time.  We’ll tell the team that you will be in the game, so that when the
faculty search
their minds they won’t immediately discover that
you aren’t there
,”
Duke said.

“Thanks Duke, that’s a g
ood idea
,”
Donny responded.

The rest of the team soon began to arrive, and their discussion had to end.  Once everyone had arrived, Duke stepped forward to address the team.  “Ok, Donny and I have a plan of action to throw off the faculty.  They are expecting Donny to be leading the charge, and they are preparing for the types of things he would normally do.  In order to throw them off, I will be leading you all in.  Donny is going to wait by the door for a while,
then
he will slip in and go on an independent mission.  Trust us that this is the way that will give us the best chance of gett
ing the better of the faculty.”

The team looked over to Donny for confirmation, and he nodded to them all.  Donny could see them all questioning the plan silently, but they had learned by now not to question the orders, so none of them spoke.  Duke took the complete lead in pumping the team up for their match, which relieved Donny tremendously, as he was not feeling very pumped up himself.  The remaining minutes felt like hours to him, but finally he heard the lock click, and Duke pulled open the door.  He led the team inside, 20 of them instead of 21, as he was pretending Donny would be joining them.  Donny watched through the door as Duke snatched up the instructions paper on his way by, and the rest of the team took all the supplies which were sitting on the table.  As they ran out of sight, Donny stepped back from the doorway, and shut the door.

Donny made his way back towards the school at a run, shedding his top layer as he went.  Despite the heat, he travelled around the outside of the building, knowing that he would be unlikely to bump into anyone outside.  He entered by a door near to Captain William’s office, and was relieved to find the faculty member from the computer lab to be the only person in sight.  The man l
ooked as nervous as Donny felt.

“The game
has started?”  He asked Donny.

“Yes, I thought you said there would be
three of us?”  Donny responded.

“There will,
the third will join us later.”

The man closed his eyes in concentration for a moment.  Donny could tell that the man was either a Prometheus or nothing by his look, but now he could see that the man must be a Prometheus who was mentally searching for something.  He must have found what he was looking for, because he quickly opened his eyes and took the handle to Captain William’s door.  He opened the door quietly and walked in, with Donny following close behind.  There was a door in the back of the office which Donny had noticed before, but never paid much attention to.  They walked up to the door, and the man pulled out a key and unlocked it.  They walked through into a larger room, with monitors along the walls.
 

Donny looked at the monitors, and could see that the majority of the school was under surveillance.  As he walked along behind his mysterious leader, he noticed a set of monitors that covered the arena.  He watched as he could see his team and the faculty moving about on their task, whatever it may be.  At first he figured it must be a search and recover activity, as there were many faculty members who were clearly looking for something.  Then he realized there were no members from his own tea
m who appeared to be searching.

“They’re searching for you,” t
he man said, before Donny even thought to ask.

Donny noticed a camera facing the arena from one of the other buildings.  “It’s a good thing they didn’t leave someone here to watch the cameras, or they would have seen me leave.”
 

“They did leave some
one to watch the cameras.  Me.”

Donny looked over at the man, and saw that he was deep in concentration, sitting next to another door across the room from the one through which they had entered.  This is not what Donny had expected for their search and rescue.  He thought there would be more sneaking about, probably more fighting, and a lot less waiting.  Donny looked back at the monitors for the game, and w
atched them all running around.

Suddenly Donny’s
guide looked up.  “Let’s go,” h
e said, and pulling out another key, opened the third door.  The man rushed inside first.  Donny followed quickly, and saw the man checking two men who were on the floor unconscious.
 

“What h
appened to them?”  Donny asked.

“I released a gas into the room a short t
ime ago.  It knocked them out.”

“Wouldn’t the gas still be in here then?”  Donny asked.  The room had no windows or doors other than the one through whi
ch the two of them had entered.

“The gas breaks up over time.  It is not going to affect us now.  My friend over there signaled that it had weake
ned enough.”

Donny looked over to where the man had been referring.  There sat the only two things in the room besides them and the unconscious guards.  There sat two cripples, both of whom were clearly completely paralyzed.  The one on the left sat in a normal chair.  He was older, and Donny suspected that he had been a Hermes a long time back.  There was no quick movement which typically signified a Hermes, but his physique still gave him away, despite how long it had been since he had ran, or moved at all.

The one on the right was the
more
interesting of the pair.  He was in a metal chair which was bolted to the ground, and he was tied to it with thick metal chains.  Donny was amazed that so much trouble had gone into tying up someone who was clearly unable to go anywhere.  This man was much younger than the other, and Donny could not immediately decide what his ability had been before he had been crippled.  He had the atrophied remains of firm muscles, leading Donny to believe he had been a Titan, but then there was also the curled up but still slender physique of a Hermes.  There was also something in his eyes that gave the knowing look of a Prometheus.  Something in those eyes which seemed strangely familiar.  Somethi
ng in the eyes that Donny knew.

“Jay!?”
  Donny exclaimed.  The name came out before he was certain it was actually his brother, but as soon as the possibility entered his mind, he knew that it was true.  Donny was mortified.  He had expected to find his brother restrained, but he also expected to find Jay in good health, not shriveled up as he was.  “You said he was alright!”  Donn
y yelled accusingly to the man.

“I said he was alive and safe.  He is both those things.  Don’t
worry,
he will recover after a little time.”
 

Recover?  He’s paralyzed! 
Donny knew this condition would not just go away for a normal person.  Luckily, he also knew Jay was not a normal person.  He was relieved by the prospect that his brother might be able to retur
n to his former self after all.

“Move that one away from Jay
,”
Donny was instructed, and he quickly followed the orders.  He pulled the chair of the left crippled man into the other room and set him in
a corner next to some monitors.

“I need confirmation that Donny is in the arena.”

Donny jumped as Captain Williams’ voice came at him from behind.  To his relief, the voice came from a speaker by the arena monitors, not from the captain himself.  Donny’s accomplice ran into the room and over to a microphone.  Looking quickly at the monitors, he pressed a button and spoke into the microphone.  “Affirmative
, Donny is still in the arena.”

“Where?”
  The voice came back.

The man thought for a moment, looking at the monitors, then pressed the button and spoke once more.  “He is
in section 3, northeast block.”

Donny saw Captain Williams on one of the monitors.  He saw him quickly turn and run towards a door, callin
g others to himself as he went.

“Shoot, we don’t have much time.  He knows I was lying, and
he is
on his way.”  The man quickly typed something into a nearby computer which had only words on its screen, the
n ran back into the other room.

Donny followed the man back into the room where Jay waited, and helped him get the chains off of his brother.  The man picked Jay up and draped him limply over his shoulder.  Donny could tell his brother was heavy, but as long as the man could carry him, this would be the fastest way to travel.
 

They ran back through the computer room and as they passed Donny thought he saw a fight taking place on the monitor that was showing the area between the arena and the main school building.  There was not time for him to be sure.  They ran out of the office, and began making their way down the hall.  The school alarm was sounding now, telling all students to go back to their dorm rooms. 
This must have been the alarm that went off during the villain attack earlier that year.
  Donny thought.  Donny wished they could run faster, but the man was clearly getting tired. 

To Donny’s surprise and relief, they made it through the halls all the way to the front door without running into anyone.  Donny ran a few steps ahead to open the door.  He
grabbed the handle and pulled.

But nothing happened.  The door was shut tight and locked.  “We’ll hav
e to find a window to break,” t
he man panted in exhaustion.
 

They turned around, but before advancing a single step, a large Titan turned the corner in front of them, blocking their way.  He stood in the intersection where a side hallway met the one which ran away from the door.  They were com
pletely trapped.

Donny pulled frantically at the door, as the Titan took out a rad
io and spoke something into it.

“I really wish one of us were a Titan right now
,”
Donny said as he yanked with all his might at the door.  Suddenly he heard a crash behind him, and he turned to see
Silverfist
standing where the other Titan had been, and a hug
e hole in the wall next to her.

“I’m a
Titan,
can you use my help now?”  She said with a smile.  Donny did
not
even answer, but merely got out of the way. 
Silverfist
ran forward, lowering her shoulder as she reached the door.  It looked to Donny like she
was not
even slowed by the doors, which s
mashed outward in front of her.

“Thanks
,”
Donny said.

“Let me take him,” s
he told the man, as she took Jay and put him over her own shoulder.
 

“The small plane to t
he right,” t
he man panted, still tired from carrying Jay so far.