“So keep trying,” I say, motioning for Sam to look at his retro Game Boy. “Maybe imagine something horrible is about to happen.”
He frowns. “Shouldn’t be hard.”
Sam goes back to speaking insistently to his video game. Nothing happens. Every few minutes, he closes his eyes and grits his teeth, like he’s trying to get himself into the right mind-set of panic and terror. Sweat beads on his forehead. Still, he can’t get the video game to turn on. I lean my head back, close my eyes, and listen to his mantra. “Turn on, turn on, turn on . . .”
“We’re about ten minutes out,” Lexa calls from the cockpit a short time later.
I open my eyes and glance towards the cockpit. The copilot seat is now occupied by Regal, the hawk perched on the back of the chair, his eyes straight ahead as we zip through the clouds. Ella is still resting her eyes or meditating, I’m not sure which. Meanwhile, Bandit paces back and forth across the aisle in front of us, anxiously waiting for us to land. Daniela watches the raccoon pace, looking a little nervous herself as we approach what might be a battle. It occurs to me that this is all still extraordinarily new to her. She’s hasn’t even had her Legacies for a week yet and now she’s got to get used to charging into dangerous situations alongside shape-shifting alien animals.
“Don’t worry. We can handle this.” I lean across Sam to tell her, even though I’ve got no idea what we’ll be facing once we arrive at Niagara Falls.
“I’m good,” Daniela reassures me.
I turn to Sam to say something but cut myself off when I notice the look of deep concentration on his face. His eyebrows are scrunched up, and he’s staring down at that inert Game Boy as if it’s his worst enemy.
“Turn on,” he says through gritted teeth.
I actually jump when the handheld game chimes to life. Sam nearly fumbles the thing as he turns to grin at me.
“Did you see that?” he exclaims.
“Nuh-uh,” Daniela replies, leaning over. “Your finger was on the button.”
“It was not!”
“You did it, Sam!” I say, squeezing his leg. I’m thrilled for him, my own grin almost the same size as his.
Ella opens her eyes to watch the scene, a small smile on her face. “Congratulations, Sam.”
“Did it feel different?” I ask. “Do you remember how you did it?”
“It’s hard to explain,” Sam says, looking down at the video game almost like he still doesn’t believe what just happened. “I tried to picture the circuitry. At first it was just, like, a made-up picture in my head. I don’t know what the inside of a Game Boy looks like or how it works. But then, I don’t know, the visual started to get clearer and clearer. Like a blueprint was forming in my mind. At first it was all made-up nonsense, but gradually it changed into something . . . I don’t know. Something logical? Like I was learning the machine. Or the machine was telling me how it works. Does that make sense?”
“No,” Daniela replies immediately.
“It sounds kinda similar to how I use my telepathy,” Ella says.
I shrug at Sam. “Whatever works. Do you think you could do it again?”
“I think so,” Sam says, and once again concentrates on the video game. This time he raises his voice like he’s scolding a badly behaving pet. “Turn off.”
The Game Boy blinks off.
“Nice,” Daniela says. “You really are doing it.”
Instead of congratulating Sam, I tilt my head to the side. Something isn’t quite right. The wind outside the ship is suddenly much louder. It takes me a moment to realize the reason why.
“We’re falling,” Ella observes.
The ship’s engines have stopped humming.
“Guys!” Lexa’s voice comes from the cockpit, a slight note of panic there. “I’ve got some kind of malfunction up here! My systems just went dead!”
From the cockpit, I hear Lexa slamming levers and slapping buttons, cursing when they don’t do anything to turn her systems back on. Sensing trouble, Bandit scurries beneath a seat and puts his paws over his head. We’re gliding now, and a quick glance out the window shows me that we’re losing altitude fast. A golf course zooms by beneath us, a small town, a river.
Daniela and I stare at Sam in unison. His eyes are wide. He swallows hard.
“Oops.”
CHAPTER NINE
“YOU’RE SURE WE SHOULD BE DOING THIS?” Nine asks me.
“We don’t have a choice.”