Todd struggled to walk down the dirty alley. He was holding up Gary Ghoul with one arm and leaning against the wall for support. Gary wasn't that heavy but Todd found the weight awkward, with his arm under Gary's. Gary stood unevenly, placing as much weight he could on Todd, his bruised legs.
Given the beating he'd taken at the hands of Squad 5, it was a wonder he could stand at all. One of the bigger ones had caught Gary from behind back by the tower. Gary had put up a good struggle but he hadn't really recovered from that first blow. At the moment he'd lost himself in yet another coughing fit.
COUGH COUGH, he roared.
Todd turned his eyes to the mouth of the narrow alley.
Ryan was pushing back three of the members of Squad 5, somehow succeeding in trading blows with all of them at once.
Todd was pretty impressed at how strong he was. The guy had said he was strong but Todd had met a lot of people who said that they were strong. Heck, he was strong. But SuperRyan was unlike anything Todd had ever seen. One of the guys fighting Ryan had to be at least eight feet tall and yet Ryan was going toe to toe with them and the two guys like it were nothing.
I guess it's a bit easier to go by your real name when you can do that, Todd thought to himself as he watched Ryan throw two of them to the ground.
The quiet whirring from above announced Cassie's approach from the sky. Todd looked up to see her straight white uniform, her Readypack's jets quieting as she came to rest on the pavement.
"What'd find?" Todd asked. "What's happening out there?"
"Flyerman's squad's got the ball. He, that glowing letters guy and the little girl are all together and they're almost to their goal line," she said with a sigh.
"Stinky winker," Todd muttered to himself. That wasn't good.
"How do they look?" he asked. "Are they beat up too?"
Cassie shook her head.
"Flyerman looked tired. I don't think he's got much left in him. Other than that, they looked fine. I think we've taken the brunt of the fights."
No kidding, Todd thought to himself.
He'd taken a few good hits, not as many as Gary, but once he'd figured out they weren't going to end the match for the fights, he'd given as much he'd got.
"So, if you take out Wyatt and the girl, it's just pretty much just William to worry about in their squad?" Todd asked.
"I guess so." Cassie shrugged. "I didn't see the other girl, but she might be lost in the streets or something."
"Maybe," Todd said.
That didn't sound like impossible odds, Todd thought to himself. Maybe they could still win it. The beginnings of a plan was percolating in Todd's brain.
If they could get out of this alley and...
Still, he thought, turning his thought back to the moment, he didn't want to move with Gary like this...
"I think I've got a plan to make us win this," Todd said. "But it's up to you guys. If you want to forfeit, I'm pretty sure they'll let us out and we can get some medical attention."
"I'm fine. It's up to Gary," Cassie said. "He's the one that needs it."
Todd and Cassie turned to Gary.
"How are you feeling, Gary?" Todd asked. "Do you wanna get out of the game?"
"I've had worse," Gary said, trying to calm his ragged breathing. "Besides, I got punched way too many times today to let someone else win this thing."
Todd nodded.
"Ryan!" he called out his squadmate, "can you handle this by yourself?"
"Are you kidding?" Ryan yelled back, with a wide grin. He was currently trying to punch one of the guys while holding another in a half nelson
"I haven't had this much fun since football season ended," he said with a laugh.
"Cassie," Todd asked, turning to her. "Can your Readypack hold up you and Gary?"
"I've tested the jet up 350 pounds. Granted, that's just the jet, not the arm straps, but yeah. Should be able to," she said, nodded.
"All right then," Todd said passing Gary's limping form to Cassie. "Let's show these kids what we're made of."
Wyatt and his squad were quickly approaching the building where they'd left Mariah. After that, it was only a block or two to their finish line. So far they hadn't seen anyone. Wyatt guessed that meant the other two squads were busy fighting amongst themselves. Wyatt hoped Todd was alright. Still, with Ryan on their squad, they couldn't be doing too badly.
Wyatt was feeling a bit better, he was no longer panting but he had to force himself to put one leg in front of the other. He had a strong inclination that he would be sore tomorrow.
"So what's this prize we get for winning again?" Sally asked from the back, as they crossed a street.
William, at the front of their little group, turned around to face her.
"I'm not sure. They didn't exactly say, but they hinted that we'd be helping out a guest speaker with something."
"Someone from the Fighting Force," Wyatt added.
"Really?!" Sally squealed. "Did they say who?"
Wyatt shrugged tiredly.
"Not really," he said. "They just that the prize would be worth 'fighting for'."
"But they didn't say it would be the Fighting Force. So it might not be the Fighting Force at all." Sally replied.
Wyatt rolled his eyes.
"No," he said, "but they capitalized the 'F's on 'fighting for'. 'Fighting For'. Fighting Force. It's obvious."
"What if it was an accident?" Sally asked incredulously. "What if they're just no good at typing?"
"You're telling me, that everything is typed correctly in the whole message, except for the spot where they just so happened to type things exactly wrong so that the message strongly implies that it will be Fighting Force," Wyatt said, feeling the heat rise in his voice.
"It's possible, yeah. Old people are terrible. I bet Mr. Buckingham types with two fingers."
She laughed, demonstrated by tapping her two outstretched pointer fingers onto imaginary keys.
Wyatt's only response was to roll his eyes again. They always seem to get a good workout whenever he spent time with Sally.
Wyatt was about to open his mouth, remind them all to try to keep out of sight, when all of sudden, everything around him went pitch black.
He looked around him but he couldn't see anything. It was as if someone had shut off all of the lights around the whole world. Was something wrong with his eyes?
He reached his arm out tentatively, trying to see if he find one of his squadmates.
"What's going on?" Sally yelled.
One second, they had been walking along, then everything was covered with blackness. That was the weird thing, though. It didn't happen instantaneously, the blackness had seemed to spread, albeit very quickly.
"I don't kno-" Wyatt started to say.
Oh no, Wyatt realized.
Creating blackness out of nowhere?
That sounded like Gary Ghoul's power.
"Get down!" Wyatt cried.
But it was too late. Wyatt heard the roar of water spraying out, like the sound of a fire hose. Wyatt felt the stream of water hit him like a firehose, bowling him over.
He heard the jet being turned on his squadmates as well. Wyatt's ears heard the telltale sound the jet being turned to face the ground and the loud PATTERPATTERPATTER of water crashing against the ground.
That meant that Todd was here as well. That was the sound of him jumping off one of the buildings. Of all of the times to actually practice using the jet from the diver ring to jump off a roof, he had to use it now.
Just as suddenly as the blackness had appeared, it suddenly disappeared, leaving Wyatt's eyelids squinting as the light from the rest of the world reappeared.
Wyatt looked around from his spot laying on the ground. His uniform was soaked but he had bigger problems. Sally and William had been laid out by the water as well, both of them were laying on the ground. Sally was holding her elbow. It looked like she'd landed on it when she fell.
But Wyatt's attention was turned to the bright pink ball William must have dropped rolling along the pavement away from them.
Wyatt tried to struggle to his feet to grab it. His eyes were tracking it along the ground. His heart sank when he saw two hands in white gloves reach down to it.
Cassie Lawton pulled the ball from the ground. She was smiling. Tucking the ball under one arm, she formed her other hand in a fist. Her jet pack on her back roared to life and Wyatt was left to watch helplessly as she lifted off the ground away from them.
Wyatt struggled to his feet, intent on flying after her, when the blackness reappeared around them, completely obscuring Wyatt's view.
"Oh, come on, Gary," Wyatt complained loudly.
Todd's voice emerged through the blackness.
"Is it wrong to use the tools you have, Wyatt?" he asked innocently.
Great, Wyatt thought. So we have total blackness and Gary Ghoul and Todd to contend with.
Maybe if Wyatt just took after Cassie, he could catch up with her. But he wasn't totally sure which way she'd gone. He'd gotten turned around in the darkness. Or had he? He couldn't be sure. But he couldn't afford to spend any time going in the wrong direction. Or flying into a building. Was it worth it?
Just then, his mind turned back to Mariah, scoping them out from the nearby building top.
"Mariah!" he shouted as loudly as he could.
"Mariah. Shoot her! Shoot the ball! Take the shot!"
Wyatt waited in the darkness. He didn't hear anything.
Has she heard him? Was she too far away?
Suddenly, the silence of the arena was broken by the crack of a gunshot.
BLAM.
BLAM.
Each time Wyatt could hear the sound dissipate as it hit the building around them.
"What the heck was that?" Wyatt heard Todd ask.
Did it work? Wyatt wondered. Did she make it?
Wyatt fumbled towards what he hoped was the edge of the darkness.
He covered his eyes as the light from all around him engulfed him as he stepped out of the thick blackness.
His heart sank as he spied the white coat of Cassie Lawton's suit still flying towards her goal. The pink ball was still clutched under's arm.
A moment later, the air horn sounded, marking the end of the game.
"Congratulations, Squad 1, victors of this round!" the voice from the loudspeakers rang out.
Wyatt heard it only distantly.
They had been so close. So close! Wyatt thought to himself. He pounded his fist against the ground. The hard pebbles of the asphalt hurt his hand, but he didn't notice.