I'm sprinting after Alexis as fast as I can. It's a combination of being out of shape and Alexis running as fast as a car that has me out of breath.

Alexis spots something and ducks behind a tree. I follow her lead and crouch behind a rock close by. She mouths the word "scout" and nods her head to where a cluster of shrubs are. At first, I don't see anything, just some random bushes and I start to think she's wrong. Then I realize what I thought were bushes were actually three people perfectly camouflaged. I would've ran right into their trap if Alexis hadn't spotted them first.

What the hell are we supposed to do? I think.

As if reading my mind, Alexis winks at me and focuses on her open hand in front of her. Her wink makes my heart beat fifty times faster than it already is.

As Alexis stares at her hand, sparks flicker in her open palm. Soon, those sparks turn into small flames and those flames erupt into a full on fire ball. Alexis out from behind the tree and charges the bush. They barely squeeze off a couple blaster shots before Alexis can get to them. She jumps and flips over the scouts and drops her fireball when shes directly overhead. Damn, Kyle wasn't kidding when he said Alexis was badass.

The mix of leaves and sticks used in the costume erupts in flames immediately. The three scouts scream in pain and shake off the flaming debris. They sprint off in the opposite direction of Alexis not wanting to get their asses handed to them a second time.

I come out from my hiding spot and jog over to Alexis. Before I can say anything she tosses me one of the blasters they left behind.

"Thanks for the help back there," Alexis calls as she heads off deeper in enemy lines.

I follow after her, "Oh uh, sorry it seemed like you kind of had it under control."

"Come on we're wasting time."

We make it to the edge of the woods and wait here to go over our options. Ahead of us is a cliff with a drop of at least fifty feet into the rocky coast of the Pacific. There's nothing except for barren land and a dead tree at the edge of the cliff that looks two-hundred years old. The ancient tree is tilted at a sharp angle towards the ocean and would probably fall if someone were to just sneeze nearby.

The enemy flag hangs, of course, from the tip of a branch over empty air. How we're supposed to get to it, I have no idea.

Alexis looks at me as if expecting for a genius plan to come out of my mouth. Right now with Alexis staring at me, I couldn't care less about the flag. It's at the most inconvenient times your brain chooses to notice things like how the cool California breeze blows her perfect hair just right, or how her gray eyes seem to change color from gray to green to blue.

When Alexis finally breaks the silence my mind goes back to battle mode.

"No immediate threats are visible guarding the flag, but I can assure you Nigel himself is stationed somewhere nearby," Alexis whispers, "Be on the look out for glowing red projectiles too. Ran can charge any item she wishes, essentially turning it into a grenade. Best way to stop that is to just use your telekinesis to deflect it."

Oh God. I've used my telekinesis only once in my life, and I'm not even sure how to replicate it, let alone stop a grenade flying right towards me. I'm about to let Alexis know this when a we here a branches snap to our left.

"What was that?" I hiss.

Alexis shoots me a look shutting me up.

Across the clearing to the left, a small huddle of people slowly walk out into the open. I realize they're one of the groups meant to be flanking the enemy so Alexis and I can reach the flag easier. Alexis must realize this too, because her eyes narrow and she sighs in frustration.

The team of five walks close together towards the flag. Alexis must want to wait this out, because she hasn't moved an inch.

All of a sudden, a blur shoots out from behind one of the tries and charges straight at our helpless team mates. One of the members of the group fires at the blur with his blaster, but it's easily avoided. The one who fired is picked up and flown fifty feet into the air.

The blur was an enemy Garde who can fly. He has one of ours hostage in the air and is dangling his prisoner by the ankle. I can make out a bleached blonde mohawk, leather clothing, and one smug ass smile on his face. Nigel.

The remaining Garde on the ground start to try to take aim at Nigel with their blasters. They must realize it's futile as they could just as well hit their friend.

"We have to do something Alexis,"

"Luke, unless you have some genius plan, there's nothing we can do. We just wait. I've bee with Nigel long enough to know that he'll want to put on a show for us."

As if on cue, Nigel clears his throat.

"Look at what we have here mate. I really hope you're here to try and take our flag. I'm really in the mood to beat the shit out of someone right now and you lot are practically asking me to,"

Nigel is hovering over the edge of the cliff now, holding our team mate out over the rocky shore of the ocean.

"There's two ways we can go about this" Nigel starts, "Either you surrender to me and this all goes down peacefully. Sounds good, right? Or, if you want, and I really hope you do, we can do this shit the hard way."

Something about Nigel acting like he's the top dog around here really starts to piss me off. Maybe it's because I've been the target of a bully too many times to count that I decide to walk out from behind the tree. Or this could be some new legacy forming, having the balls to go up against bullies. Either way, nothing is about to stop me. Alexis tries to reach out for my arm, but it's too late, I'm already in the open.

"Go to hell!" I shout glaring at Nigel.

A huge smile spreads across Nigel's face and I get a bad feeling in my stomach.

"Alright new kid. So be it,"

Everything happens in slow motion after that. Nigel drops his hostage to plummet towards the jagged rocks. Before the falling Garde can fall ten feet, a creature with the body of a lion and wings and head of an eagle swoops from the forest to catch him. I'm guessing Rachael the shape shifter heard the noise and came to save the day.

Previously hidden Garde emerge from the darkness of the forest and charge us. One of them is a small, Japanese girl holding a bright red rock no bigger than a phone. She throws the rock directly at me and I panic. I'm not stupid enough to rely on my telekinesis that I've used only once, so I just duck. The charged rock sails right over my head and into the trees right where Alexis and I were hiding a second before.

Shit. Alexis.

When the rock hits a tree behind my it explodes just like Alexis warned me it would. Bark, rock shrapnel, and dirt fly everywhere. I hear Alexis shout and my heart drops.

Way to make a fool of yourself on the first day Luke, I mentally scold myself.

I run into the forest to find Alexis. I see her lifeless body on the ground near the base of a tree. As I get closer I can tell it's bad. Her left arm is obviously dislocated and her legs and torso are shredded by the bark and rocks sprayed from the explosion.

What keeps me from collapsing and breaking down on the spot is her chest slowly rises and falls. She's still alive. Thank God.

I turn to look behind my shoulder to see Rachael plus the team of five trying to hold their ground against the enemy team. From what it looks like, they won't last long. I have to help Alexis and get out there to help my team.

I step towards Alexis and as I do I'm shouldered in the back into a nearby tree. I'm almost one hundred percent sure I break a couple ribs.

"Oye, that felt good," I hear Nigel say.

I slowly get to my feet and see Nigel flying straight towards me. I'm too disoriented to dodge him so I brace myself for the impact. Nigel hits me with a punch to my jaw and I buckle to the ground. I shake the black spots from my vision and see my blaster on the ground a couple yards away.

I see Nigel looping around for another attack. I use this time to crawl over to where the blaster lies. I aim it right at Nigel who doesn't seemed fazed by it. Right as I pull the trigger of the gun, Nigel reaches out his hand and uses his telekinesis to crumple the end of the barrel. The energy from the projectile inside the barrel causes the whole blaster to explode right in my face and I black out from the pain.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review to let me know how I'm doing, it really encourages me to want to keep writing since I know you guys are out there. Next chapter shit's about to go down.