“Right,” I said. “We need a plan.” We had thirty seconds while the orbs reset. Then it’d be game on again.
“There’s a power-up in the east quadrant,” Josh announced, popping back into the base.
“Where have you been?” Lilli scolded. “You totally disappeared on me out there!”
He waved a hand. “Please. You didn’t need my help. They were unarmed. Even Ian here could have scored.”
“Um, I took out a dude with a car,” I informed him, annoyed. “I mean, just saying.”
“Twenty seconds…” Rocky the Robot droned.
“Whatever,” Josh said. “We need to get that power-up.”
“No way,” Starr argued. “We don’t need it. We have the lead. We just need to play quick and smart. Go straight for the orb. Bring it back. Nothing fancy. That’s how we’ll win.”
“It’s not going to be that easy!” Josh shot back. “They have weapons now. You can’t just roll over them. We need an advantage if we’re going to keep our lead.”
“Ten seconds,” Rocky announced happily.
“We’re wasting time arguing,” Lilli cried. “We have to work together if we want to win.”
“Which means we need to go after the orb,” Starr said stubbornly.
“The power-up,” Josh corrected.
“Five seconds…”
“Whatever,” Josh muttered. Which I wasn’t sure was agreement or not.
But there was no time to question. The gates began to lift. Round two had begun.
“Go, go, go!” Starr cried, flying out of our base and onto the city streets. We followed her out, me in last place again. (Not that I cared anymore—I could throw cars! Leap from buildings!)
Suddenly I stopped short, digging my heels into the pavement. Something was different this time. The landscape had changed. Sure, it was still a city straight out of a zombie apocalypse film. But unlike before, when it was just burned-out cars and crumbling buildings, now it was alive and teeming with large robotic sentries on patrol. Giant metal creatures perched on long spindly legs, crawling up and down the city streets, their laser eyes darting to every corner, seeking out intruders and zapping them into oblivion. I watched as one of them locked onto a large rat that had crawled out from an old gas station. A laser beam shot out, obliterating the rat and leaving only an oily black stain on the sidewalk where it had stood. Whoa.
The sentry turned, scanning in our direction.
“Take cover!” Starr called, dropping behind a car. We joined her, hearts pounding.
“Okay, who upped the difficulty level?” I joked, though it didn’t come out as funny as I wanted it to. The sentry took a few steps forward, still scanning. If it found us, we were toast. Burnt toast.
Josh rolled his eyes. “So… anyone for a power-up?”
I sighed. I didn’t want him to be right. But I was starting to agree with him. There was no way we could just barrel our way through those robots to get to the orb. Not without help.
“Look,” Starr said. “If you’re so hot for the power-up, just go get it, okay? Meanwhile we’ll try to sneak through the buildings. It looks as if they’re connected on the second floor. Maybe we can get through that way without attracting the robots’ attention.”
“Yeah, good luck with that!” Josh muttered. He turned to me and Lilli. “What about you guys?”
“I’ll join you,” Lilli said, surprising me. When I raised an eyebrow, she shrugged. “Why not? It could help, you know.”
“Why not, indeed,” Josh agreed, grinning at me as if he’d won something. Then he turned to Lilli. “All right, Speedy. Let’s burn some space rubber.” And with that, they started running back toward the base in the direction of the power-up, Lilli’s boot trail still flaming in her wake.
Leaving Starr and me alone.
“Forget them,” she advised, beckoning me into what looked like an old pharmacy. We ducked inside, and I looked around, taking in the scene. The place was as trashed as the rest of the city. Shelves knocked over. Broken bottles everywhere. A dim light above fizzled on and off and on again, buzzing loudly while rats scurried across the floor. Charming.
My mind flashed back to the beautiful Dragon Ops world, with its majestic mountains and lush forests. Maybe it had gone bad, but it had always been beautiful. This, on the other hand, was the stuff of nightmares. I would never understand the appeal of these kinds of games.
I followed Starr up a broken staircase and down a dark hallway lined with ripped wallpaper and teeming with black mold. She was skimming the ground with her toes, her wings keeping her above most of the debris. I, on the other hand, had to look each time I leapt and nearly ate it a few times, tripping over random boxes and loose floorboards in my path.
“Slow down!” I called out to her. “Wait for us mere mortals!”
Starr laughed but slowed her pace, and I caught up with her at the end of the hall. As she had predicted, there was a bridge-like walkway stretching between the two buildings. What she hadn’t predicted, however, was that its bottom had fallen out, making it totally impassible—at least for those of us without wings.
“Really?” Starr asked. “Are you kidding me right now?” She stared at the broken walkway in dismay.
“Now what?” I asked. “Do we go back down?”
She scratched her head for a moment. Then her eyes lighted on an old clothesline stretching out between the two buildings. A thoughtful look came over her face.
“Oh no,” I said, reading her mind. “No way. I don’t do heights.”
“You better learn quick,” she shot back. “It’s the only way we’ll have a chance.” She gave me a reassuring glance. “Look, it’s really no big deal—just think of it as a zip line.”
“I don’t do zip lines, either.” I glanced nervously at the ground below. Which, for the record, was really, really far down. “Remember, you have wings. I’m going to splat.”
“If you do, you’ll revive in the graveyard,” Starr reminded me. “But if you don’t—well, we have a chance to win
