The bald-headed woman nearly jumped out of her skin when Max materialized out of the shadow of the tree next to her.
“Jesus!” Gretchen exclaimed, sotto voce. They surely weren’t in earshot of the enemy team occupying the beach, but better safe than sorry. Max crouched next to his willowy teammate, behind the bushes concealing her from the opposing team’s view. The air was thick with the musky scent of damp earth and rich foliage, mingled with the salty tang of the distant sea. The constant buzz of insects provided a relentless soundtrack. “You nearly gave me a heart attack! Can’t you announce yourself before popping out of the darkness like some sort of demon?”
“My powers don’t work that way,” Max said, also keeping his voice down. He fought off a grin. “Besides, if I announced myself, I’d miss out on you picking your nose.”
“I was scratching, not picking,” Gretchen replied frostily. “A mosquito the size of a pigeon bit me. Between the creepy-crawlies and the aggressive humidity, I don’t know whether to puke or go blind. I’m sweating like a pregnant nun in confession. A city girl like me has no business stewing in her own juices in the jungle. Who am I, Henry Morton Stanley?”
“I guess that makes me Dr. Livingstone.”
“Well, Dr. Livingstone, I presume you guys took care of Edgar the speedster.”
“Yep. Tagged and bagged. He’s cooling his heels in our jail. What’s the situation here?”
“The other team’s remaining five members are still in their territory. I guess they’re waiting for the speedster to return. See for yourself.”
Max shielded his eyes and pushed his face into the greenery concealing them. He crept forward, parting the underbrush until he could see the vista on the other side of it.
Gretchen and he were on the very edge of the jungle in the interior of Villains Island. The white sands of the beach unfolded before him, with the ocean in the distance beyond that. The territory of Damian’s team encompassed this entire part of the beach. The moment Max or one of his teammates stepped foot out of their own territory ending at the jungle onto the beach, they would be vulnerable to being tagged by their opposition and banished to jail.
The sun beat down mercilessly on the open beach, its rays reflecting off the white sands and creating a shimmering mirage. The faint rhythmic sound of waves crashing against the distant shore provided a soothing contrast to the jungle’s cacophony.
Damian and three of his teammates were arranged in a wide semicircle on the beach, roughly equidistant from each other. Their flag was at the water’s edge, hard to make out because of how far away it was. But the fluttering blood-red dot could not be anything else. The fifth team member, a blonde woman, was positioned near the flag.
The bad news for Damian’s team was their open beach location made it easy to spot their flag.
The good news for Damian’s team was their beach location made it easy for them to spot someone from Max’s team coming to snag their flag. Sneaking up on them wasn’t an option.
Max’s heart pounded with excitement at the sight of the opposition. They were all that stood between him and freedom from this island. They were clearly in a defensive posture, deployed to prevent Max’s team from reaching their flag. They were relying on Ed to either capture Max’s flag outright, or to return with intelligence regarding where it was and how it was protected.
Max concentrated on the four students in the semicircle, trying to lock onto their shadows with his powers.
Nothing. His powers came up empty.
He wasn’t surprised. They were all arrayed beyond the range of his shadow hopping ability. Max didn’t think that was an accident. Though he had never discussed the limits of his power with Damian, Damian was observant. Too observant. He had likely deduced that Max’s teleportation abilities had a range. His eagle-eyed roommate probably kept a running dossier on Max and everyone else he came into contact with.
No matter. Though being able to shadow hop from the shadows of his opponents would have made things easier, Max had planned for this contingency.
As he studied Damian’s team, Max silently reviewed what he knew about its members based on his earlier strategy session with his own teammates.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Apart from Damian himself, Maureen was probably the most dangerous of the bunch. Despite probably not even tipping 100 pounds soaking wet, the diminutive redhead was a Titan in the Henchman Division. She was super strong, with super-fast reflexes. She was certainly no speedster but, compared to everyone on Max’s team, Maureen was as fast as a cheetah. Outrunning her would be a no-go.
Max’s eyes moved to two others. He had seen Winnie and Javier in action before, during the Dining Hall fight against the imps. The former was a hydrokinetic. The latter could generate electricity.
The blonde near the flag was a mystery. No one on Max’s team knew what she could do. All they knew was her name: Luna.
The question mark Luna posed made Max nervous. Every book he had ever read discussing military strategy stressed the importance of knowing your enemy.
Unfortunately, Sun Tzu hadn’t written a book titled The Art of Super War: Tactics for Extraordinary Capture the Flag Battles. If he had, Rebel County’s tiny public library certainly didn’t stock it. Max was sure he would have noticed a title like that.
He retreated, returning to Gretchen.
“I think the original plan we came up with is still sound,” he told her. “You and Koffi are the fastest sprinters on our team. You’ll run toward the opposing team from here. Koffi will do the same from where he’s stationed on the other side of the jungle. The enemy team will run to tag you, of course, but you’re just sacrificial lambs, a means to get closer to their flag. From here, I’ll shadow hop to either your or Koffi’s shadow, and then to the flag’s shadow. I’ll snag it, then shadow hop away. If we time this right, I’ll be nearly out of their territory again before they even realize their flag is missing. I’ll shadow hop my way back to our home base, and the game will be over. High fives for everyone.
“Let’s signal Koffi. Who knows what the other teams in the tournament are up to. We’ve got to win this thing before one of them—”
“Agh!” Gretchen exclaimed. Koffi noiselessly gliding out of the surrounding greenery had caught her off guard. He grinned at her rakishly.
“Growing up in the bush has its advantages,” he said. “Sneaking up on city slickers being one of them.”
“When this is over,” Gretchen hissed back crossly, “I swear to god I’m putting a bell around both your necks to give me advance warning. If you were snakes, you’d have bitten me.”
“What are you doing here?” Max demanded of Koffi. “The plan depends on you and Gretchen coming at the other team from different directions. To divide their attention.”
“We’ve got a problem,” Koffi said somberly.
“What?”
Crouching down with his teammates, Koffi thrust a small tree branch into Max’s hands. “Look for yourself.”
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Max demanded, shaking the surprisingly light branch. “Threaten to cane the other team with it?”
Koffi grinned. “It’s a spyglass. I made it by hollowing out the branch, then inserting some clear diamond lenses. It took some doing, but it works. Not as well as a professionally made telescope, but it’ll do in a pinch.” He glanced at the drones dancing overhead, no doubt hoping they were transmitting his ingenuity to Pantheon.
Impatient, fearing a practical joke, Max put the end of the branch to his eye. The bark of a far away tree came into focus as if Max were right next to it. The diamond lenses created some weird distortions and visual artifacts, but the spyglass was more than serviceable.
Max was impressed. Considering that his way to escape the island was at stake, he had been less than enthused when Koffi wound up on his team. The African man’s powers had seemed pretty useless in a Capture the Flag tournament. Experience was teaching him that Koffi’s abilities were far more versatile than he had first supposed. None of Prometheus’ students, Max was learning, were to be underestimated.
“Now, look at the other team,” Koffi directed him. “More specifically, their flag.”
Max, this time accompanied by Gretchen, crept forward again. Using the spyglass, he peeked through the underbrush. It took him a few seconds to find and focus on the enemy flag. Longer still for his brain to process what he was looking at.
His heart sank.
“Crap!” he murmured.
“What is it?!” Gretchen hissed. “What is it?! Let me see!”
Max pushed Gretchen’s grasping hands away. He studied the enemy team’s flag for a bit longer before handing the spyglass off to Gretchen with disappointed disgust.
She was quiet as she peered across the beach.
“What’s the big deal?” she finally whispered, her eye still to the spyglass. “All I see is a bunch of lights floating around the flag. It’s weird, sure, but I don’t see a problem.”
“Those bright lights are clustered around the flag at every angle,” Max said. “The other team must’ve put them there to obliterate any shadow cast by the flag.”
“So?”
“If there’s no shadow, there’s nothing for me to hop out of. Shadows are like doors to me. No door, no access. Our plan won’t work.”
“Oh.” Gretchen’s shoulders deflated. “Crap!”
“You can say that again,” Max said bitterly. “Let’s go back and consult with Koffi.”
Once they were all together, Max said, “The other team obviously anticipated me using my powers to get close to the flag. Must be Damian’s idea. He’s the only one over there with an inkling of how my powers work.”
“The lights themselves must be coming from Luna,” Koffi added. “On the bright side—pun intended—now we know she’s some sort of photokinetic.”
“But our plan’s ruined,” Gretchen complained.
“No plan survives first contact with the enemy,” Koffi said. “If we had executed the original plan, it would’ve failed, and we all would’ve gotten tagged. Now we know we have to create a new plan.”
“And fast,” Max urged. His insides danced with impatience. “The longer we dawdle, the greater the chance another team will capture their opponent’s flag before we do.”
He had been so optimistic about victory after his team captured Edgar.
Now, he felt like his best chance of escaping the island was slipping away.