Initiation of the Lost (Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

place...for ten seconds. Coach couldn't see the plan as a plan, but just as the actions of a hothead with no self-control, a danger. Everything looked accidental, emotional–trust was gone. Worse, from another perspective it didn't look unintentional but deliberate, calculated by pretty boy Derek.
    The second challenge was their chance to save face. Flare had an idea. To everyone, even coach now, they were just red-necked hicks who hated queers and hung up confederate flags on their bedroom walls–thanks completely to Quake. But now, thought the firestarter, it was time for a master lesson. They were going to know who ran this.
    Now, Flare and Klug flanked Quake on the field. They were suited up like their leader, Flare in a black mission suit with red shielding, the colossal, bald Klug towering over them in a navy blue suit with light blue armor. The plan was in place, no need for talking.
    Derek was huddled with Abbey and Connor, Meghan next to coach. The team versus team challenge required each team be equal in number, three on three. They finished the details to their strategy then faced their adversaries.
    With a shot of Coach O'Brien's pistol, Flare and Connor acted. Flare dropped to the ground, flicked open his lighter, and the flame jumped onto the grass, rushing forth in a line of fire–the world went dark. He was blind.
    "We get 'em?" said Klug.
    Derek's team was quiet–they were trapped in a circle of fire. With a blink of his eyes, Connor activated his power, depriving seeing eyes of their sight. Unimpressed with Derek's strategy, he foresaw this first maneuver, memorizing the terrain and the locations of the players, but all went black before he could see if his own plan had progressed: Did Quake raise an earth wall to keep them from running back? Had his firewall risen high enough and moved fast enough to keep them from escaping to the sides? Time was passing...no attack:
    "Derek," he said, "I know you're trapped. You would've attacked by now."
    Derek looked through the crackling flames: Flare and his comrades were calm, unmoving.
    "Forfeit, and it's all over," said Quake.
    "Yeah," said Klug. "Give up and it's all over."
    Connor looked to Abbey: "You got anything, sis?" The fire circle moved in, tightening around them. The flames licked Connor's jacket; he patted out the flames: "Not Dad's jacket."
    "I'm not concerned about the fire," said Abbey. "It's what happens next I have to think about."
    Flare and Klug reached out, touching Quake's shoulder. Slowly, they shifted behind their leader, all back to back. Shuffling in a circle, they rotated until Klug, the juggernaut, was in front, his teammates protected behind him.
    Abbey wore a white mission suit with her favorite hot pink half-coat. Over her right forearm was a dark blue cybernetic shield, coordinated to match her knee high, mission-approved boots.
    "Talk," she said. And the boys talked, as she went behind the slab of earth, to the rear of the fire circle.
    "You aren't going anywhere," said Flare. "We'll just stay here 'til time runs out. First time someone loses a challenge with no points."
    Coach O'Brien observed. He moved to get a view of Abbey: She reached behind her calf, unwrapping her boot, the material springing into a rigid sheet as it was uncurled. It was sheet metal, with some enhancements.
    Abbey used her powers of magnetism to slide the sheets of both boots along the ground, smothering the flames, creating a portal in the fiery wall. She walked out the circle. Running around, she waved to Derek and Connor, barely containing her glee. The boys looked at each other then ran behind the earth wall to find Abbey's sheets glowing red. Derek went to jump, but Connor pulled him back–the fire wall covered the metal sheets, blazing with fury.
    Flare had felt the break in his wall and compensated, reforming the wall:
    "One of 'em is loose," he whispered. They tightened ranks refocusing with a new vigilance.
    In the circle, Derek and Connor thought.