The Ultimate Rescue

Chapter XXV

AVERY

Music: Castle Wakati (Tower) from Star Revenge 7: Park of Time

A sky covered in a dark shade of red, the smell of smoke, and a warm breeze greet us as we fly back into the heart of Lee's Summit. Our destination, the high school, is just a few miles ahead of us. Something new to the school that I wasn't aware of prior to seeing this is the addition of a large, dark green, pyramid-like structure resting on top of the "A" Building of our school. The hovercraft has identified this as the holding place of Mackenzie--and where Mrs. Smith has set up camp.

The people on the airship are spread out into separate groups. At the control panel is Sam, piloting the ship, with Elle at his side. Just beside him is Brea, looking through a pair of binoculars to get a better view of the outside. I'm standing between her and the five members of the Resistance that we assigned to "cannon duty". Jack, Eghosa, Serafina, Sara, and Carson are manning controls for the five turrets mounted on the front of the airship. Dr. Scientist is back in a corner with his drones, and the rest of the rescue team and refugees are spread around the room. Brielle is standing right behind me.

"Target is on approach!" Brea announces to the people in the back.

With the inevitable battle only minutes away, the nerves really start to get to everybody here. Elle scoots a couple inches closer to Sam, and I grab a hold of Brielle's arm and squeeze it tightly. Brielle looks at me and gives me a somewhat reassuring smile, which does calm me down, allowing my grip on her to loosen.

"This is really happening... I can't believe it's coming to this," Elle whispers to Sam.

"Elle, remember what we talked about earlier: No matter what happens, we're in this fight together," Brielle says to Elle. I'm thankful for the fact that we have Brielle on the team to serve as the older sister figure to people who need one. She's really gone above and beyond for this, something I never would've expected from her just a year ago.

When we're less than a couple dozen feet from the high school, I yell, "Rescue team, huddle up!" Sam sets the hovercraft's controls to autopilot, and he and Elle stand up. Then, Sam, Elle, Mia, Sean, Shanna, Heath, Luke, Skylar, and I form a huddle near the back of the room.

"Okay, let's go over the plan one more time," I whisper. "We're going to lureMrs. Smith out by attacking the base. Once we have her distracted, the nine of us will go inside, find Mackenzie, learn how to stop the illuminati, and hopefully save the world."

Sam, who is to my right in the huddle, picks up after me with, "We've done this kind of thing many times before, but this time, everything is on the line. Every move we make from this point onwards will matter. So don't dawdle about. We got it?"

The rest of our teammates nod. The tightening in my chest from just a minute ago has returned, and the others seem highly stressed as well. We've fought an Argentinian militia, a highly sophisticated worldwide human trafficking center, several escaped or in-hiding convicts, an insane evil genius, and even killer animatronics. Hell, we've dealt with the illuminati already more than a handful of times. But this time, the stakes are about as high as they'll ever get. Not only is this for Mackenzie, but if we're not able to succeed, the world as we know it will no longer exist. Starting now, everything has to go just right.

Can we do it? Right now, the answer to that is unclear. Given our record, we should be more than capable of taking out the illuminati again. The only issue is the energy Mrs. Smith has. She could kill us all with her pinky finger if she so desires.

Dr. Scientist's voice distracts me from my thoughts. "Sam, I've got the drones all set for the attack," he calls out.

Sam gives him a thumbs-up, then turns to Brielle and the gunners and simply asks, "Brielle?"