The Academy: Book 2 (59 page)

“Yes and yes!” Teddy stood, and grabbed the bars again. He was moving a lot, and was making Asa nervous. “And if I could have just a little more, I could solve whatever problem you wanted me to—or I could at least try. You have a genius at your disposal, Asa. Use me for something.”

“What about my father’s riddle?”

Teddy’s face drooped into a terrible grimace and he pulled his head back as though he had been slapped. When he spoke, his voice was much deeper. Asa was given the impression that the deeper, raspier voice was now his real voice, and that he was purposefully changing the way he was talking to make Asa trust him. “What about your father’s riddle?”

“That night when I was in your mansion, I looked at the giant wall and all the math equations. You wrote out my dad’s riddle. Surely you figured something out?”

Teddy shook his head and looked towards the wall. Salvaserum tears were drying on his face like spilled eye makeup. “I didn’t.”

“But there was all that math on the wall. I followed it down, and you circled a drawing of a double helix, as though that was the answer.”

“
The question is
!” he growled. “Why were you looking at my things?”

“I was looking for you. I was worried.”

Teddy gripped the bars to his cell hard enough that green veins stood out on his arms like snakes. “
Don’t ever look at that wall again! Don’t ever intrude upon my privacy like that!”

“So what did you figure out
? Tell me! It’s my father’s riddle, I have a right to know.”

Teddy’s lips remained pulled up in a grimace, but his voice turned pleasant. “Nothing. I couldn’t figure it out.”

Asa was pained as he looked over Teddy.
What is he hiding about my father’s riddle? What reason could he possibly have for hiding something like this from me?

“I have to go to Winggame practice,” Asa said, rising. His visit with Teddy had been practically useless and he found himself wishing that he had taken a nap instead.

“Where do the Sharks practice at this time of night? I can’t imagine that you can see well enough to fly.”

“It’s just a classroom thing. We talk about different strategies and things. Goodbye, Teddy.” Asa took the stairs two at a time, leaving before Teddy could again ask where the night practices were held. He found that he did not trust Teddy with that information, locked up or not.

27

Electric Shock

             
For the next two weeks, Asa slept in Viola’s dwelling. It was nice. She was a wonderful cook, and, even better, a great listener. She tried her hardest to understand Asa’s situation, and to sympathize with him. She made it clear that her dwelling was now Asa’s dwelling also.

             
Asa thought about Carmen the Hunter’s warning dozens of times every day, and had never been so anxious in his entire life. There was something insanity provoking about not knowing exactly when the Multipliers would descend down upon the Academy. Her only specifications had been that it would be at the end of the semester, but even that wasn’t quite clear. Exams ended before the Winggame season did, and there wasn’t a pure distinction between the ongoing semester and break.

             
Other Sharks also seemed anxious about the potential Multiplier attack. Mike Plode made grenades and hid them behind the refrigerator in Viola’s dwelling. Viola protested at first, but Boom Boom talked her into it, his green eyes flashing in anger: “
Do you want to be defenseless when a hoard of Multipliers comes and rips down your door?”

             
The bombs were simple little things, and if you didn’t see the fuse, you would think that they were just ordinary rocks; each was about the size of a cantaloupe, and they were unusually heavy. Asa held one in his hand as Mike explained how it worked, his red, wavy hair atop his head like a flame.

             
“You just pull the fuse and get back. There’s no need to light it. Just pull
hard.
The inside of this rock is lined with flint, and the rope is tied with barbed wire within. If you pull hard enough, a little fire will start on the inside. After you pull the rope, you’ve got about ten seconds to get the hell away. This thing would blow you in half.” It always amused Asa how much Boom Boom’s eyes lit up when he talked about explosions.

             
Roxanne and Bruce continued to hold electrocution lessons with Asa. For the first week of lessons, he made absolutely no progress, and his new ability wasn’t of any use during their first playoff match.

             
It turned out, they didn’t need any kind of unnatural advantage anyway, and they defeated the Panthers by a score of five goals to three. Roxanne knocked three opponents into the water, and also scored the fifth goal.

             
The next week of practice was as useless as the first, and Asa’s hands were sore from being shocked so many times by Roxanne. “You’ve just got to feel the electricity; it kind of starts up at your shoulders, and then you just thrust it downward.”

             
The exercises made Asa feel like a fool who has been given a placebo. He didn’t feel any different. The more Asa learned about Roxanne’s ability, the more he wanted to have it.

             
Roxanne and Bruce had both learned Morse Code, and Roxanne could pulsate with electricity and send Bruce messages without anyone else knowing that they had communicated. She told Asa that he would be able to learn this too. She tapped out S.O.S. on the coffee table, and made him repeat it.

             
It wasn’t until the division championship that Asa was first able to use his new power. The stakes were high; if they won, they would go compete in the league championship against the Wolves, who were still undefeated. Winning the Championship would allow Asa to spend 100 additional points in the Shop, making himself much stronger.

             
Stan added to Asa’s anxiety. As they lined up on the Starting Platform, he was as white as a sheet. He knew that if the Sharks lost, it would mean Stan’s life. He needed them to win the Winggame championship in order to obtain 1,000 total points and graduate.

             
Asa attributed the high stakes to Stan’s overwhelmingly odd behavior. Ever since he apologized to Asa, he had been incredibly nice to the whole team. He smiled, was cheerful, and did everything that he could to help his teammates out. Asa believed that this was Stan’s attempt at making the Sharks perform as well as possible, for his own sake.

             
But the bruises made Asa wonder if maybe something else was going on. In the two weeks since his apology, Stan received a giant gash on his scalp, a bloody lip, and he broke his wrist (which was set and put into a cast by Missus Ida). When questioned about any of these injuries, Stan always came up with some kind of an excuse. “I tripped into the doorknob.” “I was flying, and my hand hit a tree.” As they lined up for the Winggame division championship, Stan’s nose was crooked and there was blood gathering beneath the skin on his cheeks in hideous purple bruises.

             
The horn sounded, and on either side of the Plaid, the students leapt off the Starting Platforms and began to gather speed. The Sharks had a total of ten students on their team, and the Ducks had thirteen. They moved over the water in a blur of green and blue uniforms.

             
The Sharks were running a play called “Tables.” This was what Bruce called an “intermediate” play because it wasn’t either too offensive of defensive focused. Three Sharks stayed back to play defense at the goals, two went up to grapple with opponents on the Plaid, and five students shot forward towards the opponent’s goals.

             
Asa was assigned to the Plaid, which only added to his nervousness. The Ducks were a large, heavy team known for physical play.

             
Adrenaline coursing through his veins, he landed on the Plaid without much incident. The crowd surrounding him was cheering louder than ever before. Asa believed that ninety percent of the school had turned out to watch. Robert King sat on the first row of the floating bleachers. He wore a thick, mink-skin coat. His eyes were completely covered in black pupils, and he was typing on a small laptop and watching the game at the same time. Graduates in black Academy suits with machine guns flanked The Boss, and stood facing the crowd with their backs to the game.

             
Bruce landed beside Asa and began to immediately unload his Goo Shooter on the three Ducks that landed opposite them on the Plaid. His first bullet struck a young blond-headed female in the chest and she went tumbling down to the steaming water below, seizing with electricity as she fell. His second electric bullet struck soundly on the neck of the Duck’s only Goo Shooter, Matthew Walton, but not before Matthew got off his own shot. Asa looked over to see Bruce’s eyes widen just before Matthew’s Goo bullet struck him in the face, making him contort in agony and seize with electric pulses. Both Bruce and Matthew fell to the water over one hundred feet below, taking them out of the game.

Asa wasted no time watching them fall. Cameron Finch stood across from him—they were the only two players now on the Plaid, and their fight had the potential of being pivotal in the outcome of the match. Asa was surprised to see that Cameron had even approached the Plaid. He was on of the league’s best flyers. He was tall, blond, beautiful, and terribly fast. All week, Bruce had been telling the Sharks to expect Cameron to go straight towards the goal. Now, Asa stood across from him with a chance of taking out the best player on the Ducks.

The Plaid was slick from fog rising up off the Moat, so Asa kept his wings outstretched as he ran across the checkered solid portions towards Cameron. He scowled, hoping that he would be able to use his reputation as a murderer to his advantage. It didn’t seem to have an effect, though. Cameron scowled right back, lifting his upper lip in anger and showing Asa his perfect white teeth.

They were both moving as fast as possible when they collided. Though Cameron was taller, Asa was heavier and better muscled, and he brought Cameron to the ground.

Asa had his knees on either side of his opponent, pinning him to the mat. If a player was made to tap out, they were removed from the game. Asa’s hand went to Cameron’s throat, where he shoved his thumbs as hard as possible onto Cameron’s windpipe.

Cameron gasped and his eyes flew wide op
en in surprise. His hands reached up and grasped Asa’s wrists. Cameron pulled and tugged, but Asa was too strong. He continued to choke Cameron in an attempt to make him tap out.

Next, it was Asa’s turn to be surprised. Cameron was able to get his right foot up against the corner of one of the squares on the Plaid. He pushed hard, making both Asa and Cameron do a somersault. When their bodies came to a halt, Cameron was on top of Asa, and his hands were gripped around Asa’s neck.

Asa’s head was hanging off of the Plaid’s platform, and Cameron pushed down with a grunting force, making Asa’s hair dangle in the wind and his neck stretch painfully backwards. Asa kicked and struggled, but it was no use. In his peripheral vision, he could see other players flying below him, but he wasn’t able to concentrate enough to see what any of them were specifically doing. A chortled noise came from Asa’s throat and he reached for Cameron’s face, but only touched air.

His vision tunneled down. The cheering around him began to grow dimmer.

Concentrate, Asa!

He squirmed, but still, Cameron didn’t let up.

Asa knew that if he didn’t tap out that he would pass out soon. At that point, Cameron would either shove Asa into the water below or choke Asa until he was dead (this wasn’t unprecedented in a match, especially one as important as a division championship).

But still, Asa did not tap. He was going to fight for the very end. He knew that Stan’s life might depend upon the outcome of this fight. In a roundabout way, Asa knew that his own life might depend on whether or not he was able to get out of this chokehold and help his team win. The division championship was worth 50 points to each player.