The Legacy Chronicles: Killing Giants

by Pittacus Lore

  “Same thing you are,” Nine said. “Trying to get this under control.”

  “What the hell is going on?” the woman asked. “People are saying there are monsters running loose.”

  “Animatronics,” Nine said. “Built for the show. Something went wrong.”

  The woman looked doubtful. She nodded at the dead beast lying by the ruins of the stage. The metal pole still jutted from its body. Sticky black blood oozed from the wound. “That looks pretty real,” she said.

  “Hydraulic fluid,” Nine said smoothly. “And don’t touch it. It could be corrosive.”

  The firefighter ignored the comment. “There are bodies,” she said, indicating several telltale black bags lying off to one side.

  Nine and Six looked at one another.

  “Listen,” Six said. “We’re going to contain this. For now, all you know is that those things are robots built for the show. Something went wrong with them and some people got hurt. Okay?”

  The woman looked doubtful. She started to say something.

  “We’ll take care of it,” Six said quickly. “I promise.”

  The firefighter nodded. “Animatronic space monsters,” she said. “You got it.”

  “Thank you,” said Six.

  “By the way, some of those injured people are pretty famous,” the woman said. “It won’t be long before someone tweets or posts about this to their millions of followers. So you should probably have a plan.”

  “I always do,” Nine said, giving the woman his most charming grin.

  The woman looked at Six, obviously not enraptured by Nine’s personality.

  “We’ll take care of it,” Six said again.

  The woman went back to work, ordering the various crews around the arena. Six and Nine left her to do her job, walking into the tunnel connecting the arena to the hotel. It too was in ruins.

  Nine took out a phone and started typing.

  “What are you doing?” Six asked.

  “Looking at Instagram,” he said. “Just kidding. I’m letting Lexa know that she needs to start doing damage control. We can’t have anyone knowing that a bunch of monsters are trying to destroy Las Vegas. And we don’t want a mass panic about the Mogadorians.”

  “It’s going to be kind of hard to cover this up,” Six said as they reached the lobby. She pointed outside. “Those monsters aren’t exactly tiny.”

  Nine looked. Three creatures were out there. A throng of people had gathered around, and lights from police cruisers flashed red and blue.

  “Shit,” Six said. “There’s a news van.”

  They walked towards the doors and went outside. Six expected to find people in a panic, but was surprised to discover that many of them were actually doing things like taking video of the three creatures with their phones and snapping photos of themselves or their friends standing with the monsters in the backgrounds. The beasts themselves were oddly still. They looked around, occasionally roaring and rearing up on their back legs to claw at the sky, but they weren’t attacking.

  “This is weird,” Six said.

  “They’re waiting,” Nine said.

  “For what?”

  “I’m guessing a signal of some kind,” Nine said. “It’s like they’re trying to draw as big a crowd as possible here before starting the next attack.”

  Six understood. “They want witnesses,” she said. “An audience.”

  “Dude, those things are awesome,” a young man standing next to them said to his friend. “They look totally real.”

  “I heard it’s part of a promo for the new Revengers movie,” the friend said.

  “You guys really need to get out of here,” Six said.

  The boys looked at her. Their faces lit up. “You’re Six!” one of them said. His eyes shifted to Nine. “And you’re . . . that other dude.”

  “Nine,” his friend said. “They’re Six and Nine. Hey, are you guys part of this movie?”

  “Yes,” Nine said as Six said, “No.”

  “I get it,” the young man said. “You’re not supposed to talk about it. Don’t worry. We’ll play along.” He held up his phone. “Dude, get in there with them. I’ll get a pic.”

  The second boy squeezed in between Six and Nine and gave a thumbs-up, his friend taking the photo before Six or Nine could stop him. They started to swap places for another photo, but Six said, “We’ve really got to go,” and walked away.

  Nine caught up with her. “That was rude,” he said. “You should always be nice to the fans.”

  “That one didn’t even know who you are, Other Dude.”

  “Not everyone is good with numbers,” Nine said.

  Six scanned the area. “Didn’t you say you left Nemo and Max here?” she said.

  Nine looked at his phone again. “They went looking for Sam,” he said. “Oh, and they had a run-in with Seamus and Boomer.”

  “They texted you?”

  “I was kind of busy saving you and everything,” Nine said. “Besides, that’s how kids communicate these days. When did you get so old?”

  Six ignored him. She walked over to a group of police officers. “You need to get these people out of here,” she said. “Those things are going to attack.”

  The officers laughed. Six stared at them. “I’m not joking around here. Those things are real.”

  “Sure they are,” one of the officers said.

  “Wait a minute,” another one said. “You’re the girl from the security footage. You were riding one of those things in the hotel.”

  “Yeah,” Six said. “I was. And you saw the damage they did in there. The fires. The injured people. The goddamn bodies.”

  The officers stared at her, saying nothing.

  “Are you hearing anything I’m saying?” Six said, her voice rising.

  “I think you should come with me.”

  Six turned. Another officer was standing behind her.

  “Finally,” Six said. “Look. Those things are going to—”

  The officer reached for his belt and unhooked a pair of handcuffs. “Maybe you didn’t hear me the first time,” he said.

  Six realized what was happening. “You want to arrest me?”

  “According to the Cirque des Étoiles folks, you pretended to be one of their cast members, stole one of their animatronic critters and caused a whole lot of trouble,” the officer said. “And like Officer Herren said, there’s video to back it up.”

  “I was trying to stop them,” Six objected. “Nine? Tell him—”

  She looked around, but Nine was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where the hell did he go?” Six said to herself.

  “All right,” the officer said, reaching for her arm. “Let’s just go down to the station and—”

  Six shoved him. He flew backwards. Behind her, she heard the sound of guns being drawn, followed by three voices saying, “Hands up!”

  She went invisible. The officers shouted. One reached out to touch where she’d last seen Six standing. Six darted out of her way. She didn’t have time to deal with this latest problem. Whoever was helping the Mogs was obviously orchestrating a setup of some kind, distracting anyone who could actually help from doing so.

  Well, Six was going to do something. At least she was if she could figure out where the hell Nine had gone. She was scanning the crowd for him, when she heard an excited roar go up. She turned around.

  Eleni had appeared, floating over the crowd on some kind of hovering platform. She looked like something out of a science fiction movie, dressed all in black with her platinum-blond hair streaming around her. In one hand she held a staff tipped with a glowing blue orb. In her other, a fireball swirled.

  She maneuvered so that she was just above the heads of the three monsters, who stood beneath her swaying from side to side, as if they were in a trance. All around the plaza, cameras flashed. The news crew turned their attention to her, a reporter talking excitedly as the camera operator filmed the proceedings.

  “This is
n’t good,” Six said to herself. “Come on, Nine. Where are you?”

  Eleni raised her staff. The orb changed from blue to an ugly yellowish-green. At the same time, the three beasts’ eyes also began to glow. They opened their mouths and roared. One of them took a step forward, its huge foot crushing the hood of a police car. The crowd cheered.

  Six saw the police officers who had been so anxious to take her in approach the monsters. One of them shouted something at Eleni. Eleni responded by throwing the fireball in her hand at them. One of the officers caught fire, spinning around as he attempted to put out the flames. The crowd gasped.

  Another of the officers aimed a gun at Eleni. She formed another fireball and launched it. The officer fired, missing her. Eleni pointed her staff. The nearest monster leaned down, its jaws opening, and took the man in its mouth. A moment later, the lower half of his body tumbled to the pavement.

  “Oh my God,” someone said. “She wasn’t kidding. Those things are real.”

  Six turned her head and saw the two young men she and Nine had interacted with earlier. They stared in horror at Eleni and her trio of monsters.

  “Dude,” one said. “We’ve got to go.”

  As if hearing him, the crowd began to scatter. Shots rang out. And the three beasts began their attack.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SAM

  LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

  SAM HAD BEEN IN A KIND OF HALF SLEEP, FADING in and out of wakefulness. He didn’t know how long it had been since Magdalena had left the room, leaving him with the others. They were supposed to be watching him, but they’d taken his chair into the bedroom and left him there while they hung out in the living room. The door was shut halfway, and voices from the television mingled with their own, so he couldn’t tell them apart. They were watching some kind of sci-fi movie, and that had run together with the thoughts in his head, so that he couldn’t quite remember where he was or what was happening. He was sure that he knew the people who were talking—at least some of them—but he couldn’t recall their names. His memory was getting worse. He was so tired. All he wanted to do was close his eyes and have everything fade away.

  He was about to pass out when he heard shouting. Something was happening in the other room. He heard a series of crashes. More yelling. Then someone burst into the room and the door slammed shut.

  “Keep them out!” a girl’s voice said.

  “How?” a boy answered. “There are three of them.”

  “Just try,” said the girl.

  Then someone was touching his face. “Sam?” It was the girl.

  Sam opened his eyes and looked at her. Something about her was familiar, but he couldn’t remember why.

  “It’s Nemo,” she said as she dug something out of her pocket. “I’ve got something that will help you. At least, I hope it will.”

  She moved behind him. Sam felt something like a bee sting, then a burning sensation.

  “Is it working?” the boy called out as someone pounded on the door from the other side.

  “I can’t tell,” the girl said.

  She moved away from Sam, joining the boy by the door. Sam didn’t know what they were doing, and now he was distracted by the intense pain that had ripped through his head. He cried out.

  “What’s wrong with him?” the boy said.

  “I don’t know,” said the girl. “I don’t know how this is supposed to work.”

  The room grew suddenly cold. Sam shivered and moaned as a fresh wave of pain broke over him.

  “It’s Spike,” the girl’s voice said. “He’s trying to freeze us out.”

  Sam’s body spasmed. His teeth chattered. It felt as if a giant hand was squeezing his head. Then someone was beside him, putting a hand on his face. Sam’s vision blurred, but when he looked up he saw a girl standing in front of him. Not the first girl, but a new one. She regarded him with a sad expression.

  “Get away from him, Ghost!” the boy shouted.

  “I’m sorry,” the girl whispered to Sam.

  He felt the world dissolve around him. For a moment he had no body. His atoms had been pulled apart, and he existed only as pure thought. It felt wonderful to be free of his tormented body, and he experienced several seconds of joy before he was slammed back into the prison of flesh and bone.

  He was outside. It was night. The moon seemed to hang just overhead, fat and white. When Sam looked out, it appeared he was floating in a sea of stars. Then he realized that they were electric lights. He was somewhere high up.

  “We’re on the roof of the hotel,” a voice said. “Magdalena told me to get you out of there if anyone came for you.”

  Sam saw the girl from before standing a little way away. His mind was rapidly clearing. He was starting to remember.

  “Ghost,” he said.

  The girl nodded, smiling a little.

  “And Nemo,” Sam said, recalling the name of the other girl. “Nemo was there.”

  Ghost’s smile faded. “I wish they hadn’t come,” she said. “I wish she and Max had stayed away. There’s nothing they can do.”

  But they had done something. Sam felt different. Better. More and more memories flooded his head: the Mogs, the parasite, the bunker, Six. Then he recalled the sting on his arm. Had Nemo injected him with something? Is that why he was remembering?

  Ghost walked closer. She turned and looked out over the city, pushing her hair behind her ear with a small gesture that made her seem younger than she was, like a little girl. “I want to go home,” she said softly. “But I don’t know where that is anymore.”

  Sam recalled the first time he’d seen the girl, the details coming to him with surprising ease. New Orleans. Only a few months before. She’d seemed weak then, unsure of herself and her Legacy. He remembered seeing her lying on the street in a puddle of blood after being shot by Dennings. Dennings, who was dead now. So much had happened to this girl. So many terrible things. She had become someone different.

  And yet, standing in the moonlight, her face was once more that of the frightened little girl Sam had first encountered. She was still in there somewhere.

  With every minute that passed, Sam was feeling more himself. He was still very, very tired. But his head was clear and he could think again. Whatever Nemo had injected him with, it was working. He decided it would be a mistake to show Ghost that the parasite’s control had been broken, so he continued to sit with his head bowed as he quietly tested his Legacies. He first tried to see if he could levitate the chair at all. He succeeded in lifting it a quarter of an inch, then set it back down. The effort exhausted him, but at least he knew he could do it.

  “I know how you feel,” he said, keeping his words mumbled.

  Ghost turned her face to him. Her cheeks were wet with tears. “What do you mean?”

  “I know what it’s like to feel like you don’t belong anywhere,” Sam said slowly. “Remember, I was one of the first humans to develop a Legacy. I had no idea what that made me, or what it meant.”

  “But you had Six and Nine and the others,” Ghost said.

  “And you have them, too,” said Sam. “And Nemo and Max. They understand you better than anybody.”

  Ghost didn’t respond. She looked away. Sam wondered what the Mogs had done to make her so loyal to them, to make her feel like they cared more about her than her real friends did. He wondered if she was beyond saving, if the girl he’d caught a glimpse of earlier was too far gone to come back.

  He tried using his telekinesis to work the locking mechanism on the handcuffs. He pushed the pins with his mind, sliding them in different directions until he felt them open up. Carefully, so as not to alert Ghost to what he was doing, he slid a hand free, then used it to pull the cuff from the other wrist. His arms ached from being in the same position for so long, but he forced himself to keep them there so that it looked like he was still attached to the chair.

  “You know you’re always welcome at the Academy,” he said, trying to keep Ghost talking.

&nb
sp; Ghost made a sound halfway between a laugh and a cry. “They don’t want me,” she said. “It’s too late for that.”

  She walked a few steps, until she was standing on the edge of the roof, the tips of her boots hanging over the edge. Seeing her there made Sam’s heart beat faster and his palms sweat. He wanted to call her back, but resisted the impulse.

  “I wonder what would happen if I fell,” Ghost said, seeming to speak to herself as much as to him. “Would I be able to let myself fall all the way? Or would my Legacy kick in at the last second and teleport me somewhere safe?”

  “Let’s not find out,” a voice said from behind Sam.

  He turned his head, and for the first time noticed something huge perched on top of the hotel. It was an enormous metal statue of the planet Saturn, complete with rings circling it. It stood atop a pole, seeming to float in the air above the building. Lights inside of the central globe were visible through small holes in the surface of the planet, making it radiate light.

  Magdalena walked out of the shadows that pooled beneath the statue. Sam kept his hands behind him, hoping she wouldn’t look too closely and see that the handcuffs were loose. But she seemed more interested in twirling around with her arms stretched out.

  “Isn’t it a beautiful night?” she said.

  Neither Ghost nor Sam answered her. Sam kept his head low, reminding himself that he was supposed to be incapacitated by the parasite. Ghost stepped away from the edge of the roof and folded her arms over her chest.

  Magdalena skipped to the edge of the building and looked over the edge. “You should see what’s going on down there,” she said. “My babies are having quite a time.” She sighed. “Of course Eleni is making herself the star of the show. I probably shouldn’t have given her that Legacy.”

  Sam looked at her, forgetting that he was supposed to be out of it. What had she said? She’d given Eleni a Legacy?

  Magdalena giggled. “Just imagine what I can do with what my little friend is collecting in your head,” she said, walking over to Sam. “I can’t wait to take him out.” She frowned. “That means you’ll be dead, which isn’t great for you. But you probably don’t really know what’s going on at this point anyway.”