p style="text-align: left;"strongSorry for for the gaps between updates but as you'll see by the end of this chapter there is another book that I need to change a little. I'll be trying to juggle both at once so it might take some time. Anyways, this chapter is dedicated t Hanna, a guest who left a really sweet review thatb conincd me to sit down and do some more writing./strong/p
p style="text-align: left;"strongThis chapter's song: a href=" watch?v=hXqXIicm8uU" target="_blank"Dive /a/stronga href=" watch?v=hXqXIicm8uU" target="_blank"span style="color: #006621; font-family: Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);" watch?v=hXqXIicm8uU/span/a/p
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p style="text-align: center;""Wow, Johnny. I send you out for reinforcements and you come back with an old man, a nerd, and friggin' Morgan Lefay. Great job." Nine is there to sarcastically greet our group as soon as we enter the foyer of his ridiculous Chicago penthouse. So, my first impression of him during our brief meeting in West Virginia wasn't off after all. We're back later then anyone thought we would be. We searched for the Xitharis stone, but it was gone and we couldn't stick around any longer than necessary. And while no one seems very happy about it losing it, it's like they're trying not to blame Sarah for losing it. For now, at least. After it was clear it was gone, after Sarah had apologized for the hundredth time, Six just tossed her hair and shrugged. "It's a rock." She said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself. "A powerful rock, but we're pretty powerful on our own." Still, it's clear that even after losing the Xitharis she is more a part of the Garde then both Five and me./p
p style="text-align: center;""Be nice." Six warns him. Clearly the others have gotten used to his not-so-witty banter. By the way he and John slap hands in greeting, I'd say they've even become friends. Five though, just stares straight ahead with a blank expression. /p
p style="text-align: center;""She's a witch, like from Ca-" I start to explain but she cuts me off./p
p style="text-align: center;""I know." Five says. "I just didn't find it funny." She says icly./p
p style="text-align: center;""That's Nine," says John, overhearing. "He'll grow on you. Or, well you'll get used to him." Five looks at me and rolls her eyes and I can't help smiling in return. I think we're both feeling a bit like outsiders in this penthouse. Six tried to catch me up the best she could on the ride back, but there are a lot of new faces and stories here in Chicago, not to mention the most surreal hideout in history. I still can't believe the Garde live in a place like this. It's the kind of lavish pad they used to tour on that MTV show. How Nine and his Cêpan managed to put together a place like this and keep it off the Mogadorian radar to boot is pretty impressive. John introduces everyone to Nine, who has stopped cracking lame jokes long enough to meet my Dad./p
p style="text-align: center;""And you remember Sam, right?" John finishes./p
p style="text-align: center;""Obviously," Nine says, striding forward to shake my hand. His grip is rough and he towers over me so that I have to crane my neck up. He lowers his voice, not wanting the others to hear. "Seriously, bro, sorry about leaving you in that cave. That was sort of my fault."/p
p style="text-align: center;""It's cool." I reply, a bit taken aback by the apology. Nine turns my hand over before letting me go, noticing the fresh pink scars on my wrists. "So they put you through it, huh?" he asks solemnly. By his tone it's like he's just realizing we have something in common. I guess I've joined the secret fraternity of Mogadorian torture victims. I don't know what to say. I just nod my head./p
p style="text-align: center;""You made it out," Nine says, patting me hard on the shoulder. "Good for you, bro." Nine turns towards Five, who's been so quiet I'd forgotten her. She's looking at Nine with the ferocity of a jungle cat. /p
p style="text-align: center;""Hi." He says, his earlier spunk disappearing for a second. She doesn't say anything. "Listen…" he starts. Then he's staggering backward like I'm a second out of sync. Five is a step closer, a red mark swelling across Nine's face. He shakes his head slightly and takes a step back. John starts to lead us by Nine, who's basically been standing right in our way. He sort of reminds me of one of those big dogs that jump all over visitors as soon as they come in the door. When he finally steps aside, I notice the three other Garde that Six told us about—Seven, Eight and the younger Ten. They're waiting where the living room starts, a little more patient than Nine, at least letting us get inside./p
p style="text-align: center;""If you're wondering what the horrible smell is, it's the vegetarian food Marina's cooking for dinner," says a recovering Nine./p
p style="text-align: center;""Hey," the dark-haired Seven—Marina—replies good-naturedly. "It'll be good, I promise."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Dinner," Nine snorts, "whatever. Who cares? We've got the whole team together! They're older and nerdier than expected, but I'm cool with it. Let's go blow some shit up."/p
p style="text-align: center;""You need to calm down, dude. We've been driving for like twelve hours," Six tells Nine, shoving a bag of equipment into his chest. "Here. Make yourself useful." Sarah quickly follows suit, tossing her bag to Nine. Before long, he's shouldering pretty much all the stuff we carried up from the cars. I can't help but notice Five's backpack isn't among the pile/p
p style="text-align: center;""Fine, I'll put this stuff away," Nine says as he agreeably lumbers off to put away our gear. "But then we're gonna at least talk about kicking some ass."/p
p style="text-align: center;"I notice Five staring down Nine as he leaves the room. Then, she turns to me with another vaguely annoyed look. Marina notices and steps forward. "We're not all like Nine." She says apologetically. She greats us warmly, even pulling Five into a hug which I think both surprises her and eases her up. Marina definitely puts me more at ease then Nine's brusque display. Ella greets us before scampering back into the hallway. Eight introduces himself next. I get a real easy going vibe from him, a nice change of pace from the alpha male routine Nine pulled as soon as we showed up. Still, I can tell he's just as excited as Nine was, he's just more tactful./p
p style="text-align: center;""I've got so many questions for you. All of you." Eight says. "Five, I'm dying to know where you've been, hear about everything that's happened to you." Five flashes him a lop sided smirk, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear, revealing a smattering of ear piercings./p
p style="text-align: center;""Oh, it's a hell of a story." She says, her attitude switching from an offended jaguar to a purring house cat./p
p style="text-align: center;""You were living in Jamaica before, right?" Eight asks. Five walks by him, pausing when she's level with him. /p
p style="text-align: center;""Someone's done his research." She says, flicking her eyes over him in a quick once over. She stops by the door, her fingernails clicking against the wood. "It's been fun boys." She says, swinging out into the hallway. I look around at the others who seem as equally confused as I feel when Five swings back into the room. "See you at dinner." She says before leaving the room for good./p
p style="text-align: center;""Cool chick." Eight says, grinning. Marina elbows him in the ribs and he shuts up. I feel a little sorry for Five, it isn't easy being an outsider. It's fairly obvious by her nearly schizophrenic behaviour that she's over compensating for being the last Garde to join the fight. John turns to my dad and me. "Are you guys beat too? Or do you want the grand tour?"/p
p style="text-align: center;""Nah," I say. "Lead on. This is my first penthouse."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Mine too," my dad adds, smiling./p
p style="text-align: center;""Awesome," John replies, looking relieved that we aren't being as strange as Five. "I think you guys are really going to like the next stop." At the end of the hall, John shows us into a room that looks like the Garde have been using for a base of operations. There are huge computer screens on one wall, one of them running a program similar to my dad's web crawler. The Loric Chests are stored here, along with the tablet we recovered from my dad's laboratory. The rest of the room is absolutely cluttered with various pieces of tech; some of it new and just out of the box, other pieces looking like they were recovered from a junkyard. In some places along the walls, the gadgets and spare parts are piled as high as the ceiling. My dad's face immediately lights up./p
p style="text-align: center;""This is quite the collection," he exclaims, his eyes scanning the room like a kid on Christmas morning./p
p style="text-align: center;""Nine's Cêpan, Sandor, this was his workshop," explains John. "We've put some of the stuff to use, but none of us are exactly technological whizzes." John turns to my father. "I'm hoping you could see if there's anything useful, Mr. Goode. Er, Malcolm."/p
p style="text-align: center;"My dad rubs his hands together. /p
p style="text-align: center;""With pleasure, John. It's been too long since I had a place like this at my disposal. I've got a lot of catching up to do."/p
p style="text-align: center;""I'm also wondering if you could take a look at this," John says, motioning us through a set of double doors. "Nine calls it the Lecture Hall."/p
p style="text-align: center;"Entering a huge, high-ceilinged white room we pass by an intimidating weapons rack which makes the guns my dad acquired in Texas look like toys. The room is about the size of our high school's gym, making me marvel all over again at the overall hugeness of the penthouse. At one end of the room a large cockpit-style apparatus is built into the wall, an array of consoles set up around it. The chair looks sort of smashed, like something huge fell on top of it./p
p style="text-align: center;""Amazing," remarks my dad./p
p style="text-align: center;""We've been using this room to train. Nine says that Sandor had a bunch of traps and obstacles hooked up at one point." He taps a panel on the wall where it looks like something should shoot out, but nothing happens. "Except, Nine threw a temper tantrum and smashed the controls. Now it only sort of works."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Sounds about right," I say. It's definitely not hard to picture Nine flying off the handle./p
p style="text-align: center;""That thing," he says, waving to the chair. "It's called the Lectern. If we could get it working again, I think we could really improve our training."/p
p style="text-align: center;"My dad is already kneeling down before the Lectern, picking at frayed wires and bent steel plating. "This is very impressive work," he says./p
p style="text-align: center;"I examine the machinery over his shoulder even though I have no idea what I'm looking at. "Can you fix it?"/p
p style="text-align: center;""I can try," he says, turning back to John. "I'll be of service in any way possible."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Me too," I say, giving John a quick salute. He chuckles./p
p style="text-align: center;""I know you just got here," John says. "I hope I'm not being pushy. Honestly, it's just really good to have you here. And, not to get all sappy, but I'm glad you guys found each other."/p
p style="text-align: center;"When John talks about me and my dad, there's a bit of longing in his voice. I wonder if he's thinking about how we could've had this conversation in Paradise, my dad and Henri dorking out about technology together, if only things had played out a little differently. My dad shakes John's hand again, patting him on the arm as he does./p
p style="text-align: center;""We're glad we found you, John. I know it's been hard for all of you, but you're not alone in this. Not anymore."/p
p style="text-align: left;"strongThis chapter's song: a href=" watch?v=hXqXIicm8uU" target="_blank"Dive /a/stronga href=" watch?v=hXqXIicm8uU" target="_blank"span style="color: #006621; font-family: Roboto-Regular, HelveticaNeue, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);" watch?v=hXqXIicm8uU/span/a/p
p style="text-align: center;" /p
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p style="text-align: center;""Wow, Johnny. I send you out for reinforcements and you come back with an old man, a nerd, and friggin' Morgan Lefay. Great job." Nine is there to sarcastically greet our group as soon as we enter the foyer of his ridiculous Chicago penthouse. So, my first impression of him during our brief meeting in West Virginia wasn't off after all. We're back later then anyone thought we would be. We searched for the Xitharis stone, but it was gone and we couldn't stick around any longer than necessary. And while no one seems very happy about it losing it, it's like they're trying not to blame Sarah for losing it. For now, at least. After it was clear it was gone, after Sarah had apologized for the hundredth time, Six just tossed her hair and shrugged. "It's a rock." She said, sounding like she was trying to convince herself. "A powerful rock, but we're pretty powerful on our own." Still, it's clear that even after losing the Xitharis she is more a part of the Garde then both Five and me./p
p style="text-align: center;""Be nice." Six warns him. Clearly the others have gotten used to his not-so-witty banter. By the way he and John slap hands in greeting, I'd say they've even become friends. Five though, just stares straight ahead with a blank expression. /p
p style="text-align: center;""She's a witch, like from Ca-" I start to explain but she cuts me off./p
p style="text-align: center;""I know." Five says. "I just didn't find it funny." She says icly./p
p style="text-align: center;""That's Nine," says John, overhearing. "He'll grow on you. Or, well you'll get used to him." Five looks at me and rolls her eyes and I can't help smiling in return. I think we're both feeling a bit like outsiders in this penthouse. Six tried to catch me up the best she could on the ride back, but there are a lot of new faces and stories here in Chicago, not to mention the most surreal hideout in history. I still can't believe the Garde live in a place like this. It's the kind of lavish pad they used to tour on that MTV show. How Nine and his Cêpan managed to put together a place like this and keep it off the Mogadorian radar to boot is pretty impressive. John introduces everyone to Nine, who has stopped cracking lame jokes long enough to meet my Dad./p
p style="text-align: center;""And you remember Sam, right?" John finishes./p
p style="text-align: center;""Obviously," Nine says, striding forward to shake my hand. His grip is rough and he towers over me so that I have to crane my neck up. He lowers his voice, not wanting the others to hear. "Seriously, bro, sorry about leaving you in that cave. That was sort of my fault."/p
p style="text-align: center;""It's cool." I reply, a bit taken aback by the apology. Nine turns my hand over before letting me go, noticing the fresh pink scars on my wrists. "So they put you through it, huh?" he asks solemnly. By his tone it's like he's just realizing we have something in common. I guess I've joined the secret fraternity of Mogadorian torture victims. I don't know what to say. I just nod my head./p
p style="text-align: center;""You made it out," Nine says, patting me hard on the shoulder. "Good for you, bro." Nine turns towards Five, who's been so quiet I'd forgotten her. She's looking at Nine with the ferocity of a jungle cat. /p
p style="text-align: center;""Hi." He says, his earlier spunk disappearing for a second. She doesn't say anything. "Listen…" he starts. Then he's staggering backward like I'm a second out of sync. Five is a step closer, a red mark swelling across Nine's face. He shakes his head slightly and takes a step back. John starts to lead us by Nine, who's basically been standing right in our way. He sort of reminds me of one of those big dogs that jump all over visitors as soon as they come in the door. When he finally steps aside, I notice the three other Garde that Six told us about—Seven, Eight and the younger Ten. They're waiting where the living room starts, a little more patient than Nine, at least letting us get inside./p
p style="text-align: center;""If you're wondering what the horrible smell is, it's the vegetarian food Marina's cooking for dinner," says a recovering Nine./p
p style="text-align: center;""Hey," the dark-haired Seven—Marina—replies good-naturedly. "It'll be good, I promise."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Dinner," Nine snorts, "whatever. Who cares? We've got the whole team together! They're older and nerdier than expected, but I'm cool with it. Let's go blow some shit up."/p
p style="text-align: center;""You need to calm down, dude. We've been driving for like twelve hours," Six tells Nine, shoving a bag of equipment into his chest. "Here. Make yourself useful." Sarah quickly follows suit, tossing her bag to Nine. Before long, he's shouldering pretty much all the stuff we carried up from the cars. I can't help but notice Five's backpack isn't among the pile/p
p style="text-align: center;""Fine, I'll put this stuff away," Nine says as he agreeably lumbers off to put away our gear. "But then we're gonna at least talk about kicking some ass."/p
p style="text-align: center;"I notice Five staring down Nine as he leaves the room. Then, she turns to me with another vaguely annoyed look. Marina notices and steps forward. "We're not all like Nine." She says apologetically. She greats us warmly, even pulling Five into a hug which I think both surprises her and eases her up. Marina definitely puts me more at ease then Nine's brusque display. Ella greets us before scampering back into the hallway. Eight introduces himself next. I get a real easy going vibe from him, a nice change of pace from the alpha male routine Nine pulled as soon as we showed up. Still, I can tell he's just as excited as Nine was, he's just more tactful./p
p style="text-align: center;""I've got so many questions for you. All of you." Eight says. "Five, I'm dying to know where you've been, hear about everything that's happened to you." Five flashes him a lop sided smirk, brushing a piece of hair behind her ear, revealing a smattering of ear piercings./p
p style="text-align: center;""Oh, it's a hell of a story." She says, her attitude switching from an offended jaguar to a purring house cat./p
p style="text-align: center;""You were living in Jamaica before, right?" Eight asks. Five walks by him, pausing when she's level with him. /p
p style="text-align: center;""Someone's done his research." She says, flicking her eyes over him in a quick once over. She stops by the door, her fingernails clicking against the wood. "It's been fun boys." She says, swinging out into the hallway. I look around at the others who seem as equally confused as I feel when Five swings back into the room. "See you at dinner." She says before leaving the room for good./p
p style="text-align: center;""Cool chick." Eight says, grinning. Marina elbows him in the ribs and he shuts up. I feel a little sorry for Five, it isn't easy being an outsider. It's fairly obvious by her nearly schizophrenic behaviour that she's over compensating for being the last Garde to join the fight. John turns to my dad and me. "Are you guys beat too? Or do you want the grand tour?"/p
p style="text-align: center;""Nah," I say. "Lead on. This is my first penthouse."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Mine too," my dad adds, smiling./p
p style="text-align: center;""Awesome," John replies, looking relieved that we aren't being as strange as Five. "I think you guys are really going to like the next stop." At the end of the hall, John shows us into a room that looks like the Garde have been using for a base of operations. There are huge computer screens on one wall, one of them running a program similar to my dad's web crawler. The Loric Chests are stored here, along with the tablet we recovered from my dad's laboratory. The rest of the room is absolutely cluttered with various pieces of tech; some of it new and just out of the box, other pieces looking like they were recovered from a junkyard. In some places along the walls, the gadgets and spare parts are piled as high as the ceiling. My dad's face immediately lights up./p
p style="text-align: center;""This is quite the collection," he exclaims, his eyes scanning the room like a kid on Christmas morning./p
p style="text-align: center;""Nine's Cêpan, Sandor, this was his workshop," explains John. "We've put some of the stuff to use, but none of us are exactly technological whizzes." John turns to my father. "I'm hoping you could see if there's anything useful, Mr. Goode. Er, Malcolm."/p
p style="text-align: center;"My dad rubs his hands together. /p
p style="text-align: center;""With pleasure, John. It's been too long since I had a place like this at my disposal. I've got a lot of catching up to do."/p
p style="text-align: center;""I'm also wondering if you could take a look at this," John says, motioning us through a set of double doors. "Nine calls it the Lecture Hall."/p
p style="text-align: center;"Entering a huge, high-ceilinged white room we pass by an intimidating weapons rack which makes the guns my dad acquired in Texas look like toys. The room is about the size of our high school's gym, making me marvel all over again at the overall hugeness of the penthouse. At one end of the room a large cockpit-style apparatus is built into the wall, an array of consoles set up around it. The chair looks sort of smashed, like something huge fell on top of it./p
p style="text-align: center;""Amazing," remarks my dad./p
p style="text-align: center;""We've been using this room to train. Nine says that Sandor had a bunch of traps and obstacles hooked up at one point." He taps a panel on the wall where it looks like something should shoot out, but nothing happens. "Except, Nine threw a temper tantrum and smashed the controls. Now it only sort of works."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Sounds about right," I say. It's definitely not hard to picture Nine flying off the handle./p
p style="text-align: center;""That thing," he says, waving to the chair. "It's called the Lectern. If we could get it working again, I think we could really improve our training."/p
p style="text-align: center;"My dad is already kneeling down before the Lectern, picking at frayed wires and bent steel plating. "This is very impressive work," he says./p
p style="text-align: center;"I examine the machinery over his shoulder even though I have no idea what I'm looking at. "Can you fix it?"/p
p style="text-align: center;""I can try," he says, turning back to John. "I'll be of service in any way possible."/p
p style="text-align: center;""Me too," I say, giving John a quick salute. He chuckles./p
p style="text-align: center;""I know you just got here," John says. "I hope I'm not being pushy. Honestly, it's just really good to have you here. And, not to get all sappy, but I'm glad you guys found each other."/p
p style="text-align: center;"When John talks about me and my dad, there's a bit of longing in his voice. I wonder if he's thinking about how we could've had this conversation in Paradise, my dad and Henri dorking out about technology together, if only things had played out a little differently. My dad shakes John's hand again, patting him on the arm as he does./p
p style="text-align: center;""We're glad we found you, John. I know it's been hard for all of you, but you're not alone in this. Not anymore."/p