Warcross

by Marie Lu

  The arena around us fades out, and we are transported into an alternate world.

  Cold sunlight makes me squint. I hold up a virtual hand to shield my eyes. Then, gradually, the glow fades, and I find myself suspended in midair, overlooking a vast expanse of blue ice and snow-covered glaciers, all shifting and cracking under their own weight. The snow glitters under an alien sun in a million points of light. The sky is a sheet of purple and pink and gold, and giant planets are suspended against it, their rings curving past the horizon. Enormous ice monuments tower in the landscape, erupting from the glacier at random intervals. The monuments look carved from the wind, hunched and holed and weathered, translucent, and stretch as far as the eye can see. Even the music playing around us sounds cold—synthetic bells, echoes, a background wind, and a deep, thudding, rhythmic beat.

  But what really catches my attention are the towering cliffs of blue ice on either side of us, forming our path. Frozen inside this blue ice are enormous beasts. A polar bear as large as a skyscraper. A white wolf with a missing eye, its jaws frozen into a snarl. A snake-like dragon. A saber-toothed tiger. A woolly mammoth. I shiver in awe at the size of them. They look as if they could explode from the ice at any moment.

  My stomach dips as I dare to look down. I’m outfitted in bright red Architect gear, my boots and thick hood trimmed with scarlet fur, and I’m standing on what looks like a hovering board strapped to my boots. Blue flames shoot from two cylinders attached to its base. To my left, Asher and Ren are both dressed in similar red snow gear, each of them also hovering in midair on boards. This is going to be a race.

  To my right, our opponents appear.

  The Demon Brigade is dressed in bright silver. Jena gives Asher a smirk, then a mock salute. Asher just crosses his arms and ignores her. Max Martin’s gaze sweeps coldly across us all. But Tremaine is the one with his full attention focused on me, his ice-blue eyes unreadable. He will be aiming for me, and I remember how I’d trained for him with the others, how Roshan had warned me of his adaptable nature. Nearby, Roshan’s jaw is set tight. The two refuse to look at each other.

  “Welcome to the first official game of the championships!” we hear through our headphones. “Today, the Demon Brigade faces off against the Phoenix Riders in the White World, a landscape of speed, stealth, and quick thinking. There will be no time to hesitate!”

  Our team Artifact appears over Asher’s head, a glittering red diamond. A silver diamond appears over Jena’s head. Dozens of colorful power-ups pop up around the level, suspended in the air and over the monuments and down on the ground. I look over them, searching for any within my range that might be worth a grab.

  “Emi.” Asher’s voice comes on in my ears, fed into our personal team loop. “The monument closest to you. See the Lightning power-up? Get your hands on it.”

  I catch sight of a white-blue marble suspended in the center of a gaping hole in the first ice structure. In my mind, I bring up the 3-D rotating landscape we’d been shown before the game, as clear and detailed as if it were still hovering before me. I allow myself a brief smile. “Got it,” I reply.

  “And what an interesting choice for Captain Asher!” the analysts are now saying. “Flanked on either side by not just one, but two wild cards in the Phoenix Riders’ first match of the season. Emika Chen and Renoir Thomas must have impressed him during their training.”

  “Good luck,” Ren says as the announcer reads out the familiar rules of gameplay. I know it’s directed at me, and as usual, I can’t quite tell if he’s saying it earnestly or maliciously. I give him a tight smile.

  “Same to you,” I reply. Silently, I remind myself to look for the first chance to seize him.

  We all tap our chests twice with our fists as the announcer finishes. The world stills. All I can hear is silence.

  Then, the starting call blares.

  “Game! Set! Fight!”

  The world around us comes to life. Blasts of wind send snow flying high into the sky. The flaming exhausts on my hoverboard turn ninety degrees—I’m shot forward like a bullet from a gun. Instantly, my boarding instincts kick in—while the others around me wobble unsteadily, I crouch down in position, perfectly balanced. Asher glances at me in surprise. Snow rushes into my face, obscuring my vision. I blink it away.

  Already, my board is speeding up. The white landscape rushes past me, and the ice monuments loom close. Beside me are Asher and Ren. Asher has started to pull ahead of us. I gingerly test my hoverboard, then realize that a button exists on the board beneath each of my heels. When I push my front heel down, I speed up. When I push my back heel down, I brake. I’ll have to be careful—if I brake too hard, I’ll stall in midair and go tumbling.

  Beside me, Ren breaks away and heads off in Asher’s wake. I grit my teeth, then decide not to follow after him for now. Ren had heard Asher’s instructions to me. If I’m too obvious about trailing him instead of listening to our captain, he’ll know I’m up to something else.

  The diamond shines brightly over Asher’s head. In the center of my vision hovers a transparent, circular map, showing ten dots for where each player happens to be. I nearly lose my balance as another blast of wind hits us. The first ice monument rushes toward me.

  “Now, Emi!” Asher snaps in our comms.

  I look at the Lightning power-up hovering in the middle of the giant hole in the structure. Then I shift my weight to my back leg. My hoverboard zooms upward. I hunch down until I’m as low on the board as I can go—the change speeds me up, and I rocket toward the marble.

  I snatch it out of the air as I zip through the hole.

  My memory of the 3-D landscape flashes in my mind. I see the way the structure looks on all sides, the crevices nearest it, and the way the terrain tilts. In a split second, I make a calculation of how this ice structure might topple if I mess with it right now. Do it, I tell myself. I whip out a stick of dynamite from my belt and slap it onto the side of the structure as I pass through. Then I rush downward.

  “Get out of the way!” I say through our secure feed.

  Behind me, an explosion shakes the level. Snow and shards of ice fly past me. I cringe and duck down low on my hoverboard. The structure I’d blown groans, the sound echoing across the landscape, and I glance over my shoulder to see it toppling forward toward all of us. The other Phoenix Riders scatter, thanks to my warning. I dart sharply sideways, too, so suddenly that I almost topple out of control. At the same time, I aim the Lightning power-up straight at where the Demons are clustered. I throw it.

  Lightning strikes all of them except for their captain, Jena, lighting up the space in a flash of brilliant gold. For a single, precious second, the Demons all freeze.

  Jena only gets a chance to glance up at the giant, falling shadow before shouting a warning to her teammates. “Move! Move!”

  But the Lightning attack has thrown off the Demons. Their players scatter left and right as the structure collapses in an explosion of cracking ice. They barely make it—all except for Darren Kinney, their Shield. The falling pillar clips him hard on his shoulder, and he goes spinning wildly out of control, disappearing into the cloud of white. His life bar shrinks to 0 percent.

  Darren Kinney | Team Demon Brigade

  Life: -100% | STRIKE OUT!

  EMIKA CHEN strikes out DARREN KINNEY!

  He regenerates a good fifty yards behind me, with a new life bar.

  “First strike!” the announcer screams in disbelief as the audience goes insane with cheering. “Goes to Emika Chen!”

  Hammie whoops joyously over our comms, while Ren lets out a curse and Roshan sounds bewildered. Asher’s voice finally comes on. “Next time—warn me,” he shouts, even as his tone is one of admiration.

  I’m trying to concentrate on the dizzying landscape that rushes past us. Jena’s Artifact hovers glittering and silver over her head. “You’re welcome!” I shout back. All around us come the screams and cheers from our invisible audience.

  “I don’t belie
ve it!” an analyst yells. “Another early move from a wild card in the first game of the season, and what a move it is! She couldn’t have picked a more accurate way of toppling that structure toward the Demons. We’ve been underestimating Emika Chen. This is going to be a fun one, folks!”

  Suddenly, one of the Demons sidles up to me, then spins around on his board so that he’s facing me. It’s Tremaine. My smile vanishes as he lunges for me, slashing me hard in the chest with the blade embedded on his armguard. My vision blurs scarlet.

  Emika Chen | Team Phoenix Riders

  Life: -40%

  My hoverboard wobbles as I dart backward, and I nearly lose my balance. Tremaine lunges again. He’s so fast that his limbs seem to blur. If he knocks me off my board, I’ll go tumbling into oblivion and regenerate behind everyone. I’ll be useless for a long time. My hands scramble for the hammer at my belt.

  Out of nowhere, Roshan appears on my other side right as Tremaine throws another strike at me. Roshan narrows his eyes and brings his forearms up in a bracing cross. The move activates his armguards—an enormous, glowing blue shield bursts outward from them in a circle, arcing protectively in front of us both. Tremaine’s attack hits the shield instead, sending sparks flying everywhere.

  “Babysitting your new Architect?” he taunts Roshan.

  “Don’t be so jealous,” Roshan says. He uncrosses his arms, letting the shield down for an instant, and lunges at Tremaine with his own fist. A smaller blue shield glows around his moving arm. It hits Tremaine hard enough to make him reel backward, dropping his life bar by 15 percent. The three of us maneuver down into a valley of snow-covered stone, then weave up to avoid a sharp outcropping of rock. I veer sharply out of the way as Roshan continues to fight with Tremaine—but Tremaine veers with me, determined to knock me down. My recollection of the landscape flies through my head. I use what I remember in order to avoid crashing against a cliff.

  The analyst is talking so fast now that he can barely catch his breath. “And the Demons send their Fighter after Emika! Roshan comes to her aid! If Tremaine catches Emika at this outcropping—she avoids it! Barely! It’s as if she knows this terrain! Roshan shows us why he’s one of the best Shields in the games! He’s not letting their Architect fall, folks, not if he can help it!”

  Power-ups zip past us. I eye them until I find what I’m looking for—a Speed Burst. It’s glowing bright yellow and hurtling near me. I take a mighty swerve toward it. My hand reaches out. I barely manage to grab it.

  I use it right away. The world around me slows as I dash forward.

  The light in this level is changing; the ice monuments are lit with golden rays and dragging long shadows across the glaciers. The cliffs of blue ice lining our path take on a darker, more ominous color, and the frozen beasts inside them start to look alive. From the corner of my vision, they seem to stir. It takes me a moment to realize that the sun is setting. If this keeps up, we are going to need some power-ups that light our way. I look forward, searching for Ren. Asher has handed off our Artifact to Hammie, who zips ahead of us all. Now Asher and Ren team up as they swerve toward Jena, who is sandwiched on both sides by Tremaine and Ziggy.

  “It looks like we’re heading for our first showdown between the captains!” the announcer shouts.

  Jena sees Asher’s move. She ducks low on her hoverboard and dives. Her teammates dive with her. They tumble until they look like they’re going to crash into the ground—and then suddenly pull up, so that they’re skimming right above the glacier. Asher and Ren dive down, too. Plumes of snow whip up as they zoom by.

  I turn my board higher, trying to protect myself from all the flying snow. Ahead of me, Hammie whips her own board up sharply enough to veer herself off to the right. Her movements are so quick that I can barely keep track of her. She snags another power-up, a bright blue one, and then does a dizzying spin on her board to grab a third. She’s inching her way over to Tremaine.

  I look back down at the crew skimming along the glacier’s surface. There are enough formations between here and the horizon for me to trap them in, if I can do it right. Tremaine is probably thinking the same thing. I point my hoverboard down and follow them, low against the ground.

  “Emi,” Asher says into my secure comms. “Archway ahead. Blow it up.”

  “Got it.”

  “Ren and I will veer off at the last second, go around behind Jena. When she and her team try to avoid the rubble in front of them, we’ll catch them from the back and take her Artifact.”

  I nod, even though I know Asher can’t see me. “I’ll knock it out before they can say—”

  My words die as an enormous shape explodes out of the ice cliffs lining our path.

  It looks like a prehistoric polar bear, except as tall as a skyscraper—and its jaws are open wide, revealing a row of sharp teeth, each one as long as the nearest towering ice structure. Its eyes glow scarlet. It lets out an earthshaking roar, then lunges toward the closest player.

  The closest player is me.

  My limbs go into autodrive. I slam my back foot down on the gas. At the same time, I swivel my hoverboard so sharply to my left that I spin 180 degrees. My board shoots me back in the direction I came. The bear’s mouth yawns on either side of me—its jaws start to close. Just a little farther. I shoot out of the beast’s mouth at the same time its jaws close, and the accompanying blast of wind sends me tumbling forward. The bear’s front paws land heavily, shaking the world.

  Through the dust, Roshan appears and hurtles toward me—as if he were going to ram right into me. I throw my arms up instinctively. Then I veer sideways in a desperate attempt to save myself.

  We narrowly avoid a collision. As he passes me, he grabs my arm and zooms upward as the bear lunges up for us again. Before I can protest, he puts all his strength into flinging me high—and I find myself sailing up toward the arch that still looms ahead. Below me, the bear’s jaws snap shut on Roshan.

  Roshan Ahmadi | Team Phoenix Riders

  Life: -100% | STRIKE OUT!

  Nearby, another enormous beast explodes out of the ice cliffs. A one-eyed white wolf. Players scatter left and right as it swings its head around, jaws chomping. It catches Ziggy. She vanishes in its mouth, regenerating fifty yards away along with Roshan. Ren wobbles on his board and spins out of control as he tries to avoid the wolf’s gaping mouth.

  This is my chance to get him. I turn my board in a sharp arc, then hurtle toward Ren. He sees me coming a split second before I ram hard into him, sending both us careening away from the wolf. I grab for his wrist until my hand finally closes around it.

  The noose activates. I see it glow gold in my view, then disappear. A blue glow flashes around Ren before vanishing. An instant later, a file from him pops into my view. I grin. Broke through.

  “Get off me,” Ren snaps, trying to yank himself free. His move sends us both tumbling off our boards and into the white land below. Everything goes bright in my view—and an instant later, I’ve regenerated a pace behind the others.

  “And both Rider wild cards are struck out by a rookie mistake!” the analyst shouts. Ren shoots me a dirty look from where he’s regenerated several yards away from me. Asher scolds me over our line. But I don’t care. I’ve laid Hideo’s trap. My focus turns away from Ren and back to the game.

  I hunt madly for a sight of my teammates on my map. Finally, I glimpse Asher and Hammie hovering near the center to the archway, flying in tight circles as they are trapped in by two other beasts. Some Demons are heading their way, too.

  I yank out my dynamite and zoom toward the top of the archway. As I reach it, I slap a stick of dynamite to the top of the ice structure. Then I pivot down and dart away right as it goes off. Another earth-shattering explosion—the impact shakes my board violently, and snow flies all around me, making me squint. I’m down to my last dynamite.

  Behind me, through the dust, Ren materializes with Asher and Hammie on his tail. Our Artifact still hovers over Hammie’s head. I call to
her, then toss her my hammer from my utility belt. Her hand shoots out and she catches it without even turning around, then winks at me in thanks over her shoulder. As she hurtles away from the nearest beast, she throws the hammer at its eye as hard as she can. It hits true, making the beast flinch away with a roar.

  The Demons are above us, looking down. They have the advantage now, and they know it—even from here, I can tell that Jena has a grin on her face. She still has their Artifact, and it hovers over her head, silver and shining. Her lips move as she gives instructions to her team.

  “Hams,” Asher says through our comms as we all continue to hurtle through the darkening landscape. “Give me the Artifact. Turn off your hoverboard’s lights.” His eyes are locked on Jena. “And get hers.”

  Hammie winks at Asher as she transfers our Artifact to him. In the twilight, both our Artifact and our opponent’s glow with a noticeable blue halo. “Yes, sir.”

  “Roshan, back her up. Ren, cut them off. And Emi—”

  But I never get to hear what Asher wants me to do. An explosion goes off right above a monument near us, rocketing us all apart. Tremaine had thrown a stick of dynamite near us. A blur of light streaks past us and rams right into Ren, sending both of them tumbling. It’s Max. Ren lets out an angry snarl and flings the other Fighter off him. At the same time, Hammie hurtles out of sight, her hoverboard nothing more than her engine’s bright red sparks of fire propelling her forward. I don’t have time to think about where she’s going—because in the next instant, Jena comes rocketing down toward us with Darren and Ziggy at her sides. She’s headed straight for Asher. Asher bares his teeth and laughs, then rushes up to greet her.

  My eyes flicker to the glacier’s ice below us. Along the cliffs, a white dragon is stirring to life, its movements cracking the ice that encases it. I narrow my eyes. If I can just gain control of that dragon . . . My hands go to the length of rope dangling at my waist, and as Asher and Ren attack the Demons, I dart toward the surface and slow my board down near the dragon.