Electracademy

Chapter 17

 I run and duck behind the wall, clutching my paintball gun. It is during EC, and we are playing a paintball battle. Each team has half a battlefield of their territory. They have fifteen minutes to set up defenses and then...battle. The team to have all their players shot first is the losers. I am on Grayson's team this time. Which is good because he's easily the most athletic person here.
 
Grayson dashes around the wall right next to me. Our team had set up a massive wall with slots to fire through. Grayson grabs my wrist and pulls me to the side of the wall.
 
"You take the slot." He says.
 
I nod and pull open the small slot. I set my paintball gun in it and fire away. I spot a head popping out from behind the small walls on the other teams side, then a figure dashing across the feild. I fire a good number of paintballs, but the person is moving too fast for me to hit. Grayson fires a paintball from his gun. I watch it streak across the feild and hit the person in the thigh. The person,defeated, throws down their gun and walks off the battle field.
   
I can hear Grayson say my name. "What is it?" I ask ducking under the slot.
  
"I got a problem." He says. I walk away from the wall and somebody else instantly takes the slot on the wall. Grayson shows me his paintball gun and presses the trigger. Nothing happens. It's empty.
  
"Just get more." I tell him gesturing to our stash of paintballs.
  
"Thats the thing." Grayson says. "We are all out."
 
Dang...  "Where can we get some?" I ask.
   
"The other team." He says.
   
"How are we gonna get some?"
   
"I don't know."
   
Just then Alice comes running behind our wall. "Yeah one more!" She shouts. Then she comes up to us. "What's going on?" She asks.
  
"We are all out of paintballs and the only way we can get them is taking them from the other team." I inform her.
  
She thinks for a moment. "I can get them." Alice says. "But I will need a distraction."
  
"I can do the distraction." I say.
  
"Good." Alice says. "Tell me when your ready."
  
I close my eyes and concentrate for a while. I reach out with my Electra feeling the minds of the other teams. I feel like my power is getting stronger the more I use it. I pick out a mind at random.
  
One shout rises above the commotion. "Watch it! They are coming in!" Says the voice on the other side.
 
"What do you mean?!" Says another.
 
"They are attacking! Here they come!"
  
I wait until they are arguing with the whole team. I lean over to Alice. "Go now,on the left. I think I did good but please be stealthy anyway."
 
Alice gives me a look. "Please, stealthy is my specialty." She turns around and starts to run. Halfway through her start she shapeshifts into a tan wolf. Alice the Wolf lightly runs to the other field. Her paws make no sound on the ground. I lose sight of her as she goes behind a small wall.
 
"Hold your fire,team." Grayson orders. The paintballs stop flying.
I watch through a slot with Grayson right next to me. Then I see the form of the wolf making her way back to us. She is carrying the box in her mouth. She drops it on the ground in front of us.
  
"Thanks,Alice." Grayson says. "But did you really have to get wolf slobber in it?"
  
Alice shifts. "Not like I could hold it with my opposable thumbs."                 
 
I carefully open the box. Inside are lots of multi-colored paintballs.
 
"How many did you get?!" I ask her.
 
Alice shrugs casually. "All of them."
 
Isa, who is also in our team comes to stand by us. "Your team awaits orders." I look around to see the rest of the team gathered around us.
 
Grayson looks around at the team. "Right. Here's what we do...Wait until they use up their supply. It won't be long. Keep moving around. Make it look like we are still fighting. But hold fire. Once they run out, we go head on and give it all we got."
 
Everyone is nodding.
    
"Good." Grayson says. "By now they have noticed that we aren't moving so go." And with that, the group diperses. I take all the guns and paintballs. I refill every one until they are all filled. I stand up to see that everyone is moving. Alice ,in wolf form, is literally running rings. Everyone is jumping out from behind the wall and shouting insults to the other team. I hear the sound of the other team firing their shots.
  
After a while, we hear the shouts.
 
"I'm all out!"
 
"Me too!"
 
"Wait, where did our stash go?!"
 
"You were supposed to be guarding it!"
 
"I swear it was just here!"
 
We all stand ,armed and ready. Grayson nods once and we all go across the feild. Pops fill the air as we find our targets. One by one, we get each person. A pop sound nearby and then "That's all!" Our team jumps up and celebrates, while the other team trudges back to the bathrooms to wash out the paint.
  
After the rest of our team goes away, Grayson comes to me. "You seem to have the luck. Your team always wins."
 
I laugh. "I wouldn't credit that to myself."
 
Grayson laughs and takes my hand in his, and together we walk back to the school.