UNLOCKED, kotlc

Chapter 15

"We call offense!" Keefe shouted as soon as they exited the house.  

Fitz sent him a surly glare that was almost Tam-esque, and then sprinted off in the other direction, over by his base.

"It's the dream team!" Biana said happily, giving a meaningful glance at Keefe, who suddenly looked very nervous and awkward.

"Apart from that..." Sophie cut in.  "Okay, Keefe; You're the distraction.  I'll use my telepathy to find where they're guarding the base, you go in and distract them, while Biana uses her vanishing and sneaks up on their base.  I'll back her up from behind."

"Hang on a second Foster," Keefe said defensively.  "Why do I have to be the distraction? Linh's gonna kill me!"

"Funny that's the first person on the team that you think of," Biana said with some sort of giggle.

Keefe looked thoughtful like he was wondering which one of them was the most likely to kill him first.  "Okay, so maybe the Fitzter will be the first, but still!  And you Foster, why can't you just do your fancy teleportation thingy that you were telling me about?"

In all the craziness of the past few weeks, Sophie had completely forgotten that she'd found a new way to teleport. Technically, she could just teleport over to their base...

"New game plan," Sophie decided. "Keefe, you're still the distraction, otherwise they'll get suspicious.  Biana, let's try to see if I can teleport someone with me- we already know that when I'm enhancing you, you can turn me invisible."

"Girls night!" Biana whooped, and then turned to Keefe and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Go!" Sophie whisper-screamed, locking hands with Biana as they faded out of sight.  She watched Keefe glare at them, although he was looking a few feet in the other direction, as he couldn't properly see them.  Then he sprinted off towards their base.

"Can you run fast?"  Sophie asked Biana, glad that she'd ditched the frilly makeover.

"Um, no?"  Biana said uncertainly, which Sophie figured as much.

But as they started running, she tuned out Biana's complaints.  Everything was forward, forward, forward, and suddenly they were rushing faster and faster like running water, the beautiful skipping sensation rushing through her...

"Whoa," Biana said, nearly tripping over her own feet as they stopped.

"Shhh!" Sophie hissed, pointing to where Fitz was standing on the other side of the clearing, Linh guarding the post nearest to them.  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Keefe preparing to pounce on their base.  Linh caught him from the trees and started splashing water on his face, a clean jet of water propelling him backwards into the forest.  "We have to get over there.  Can you tip toe?"

"That I can do," Biana agreed, and they slunk over to the base.  

Without warning, a net scooped them up out of nowhere, and Sophie's hand was disconnected from Biana's.  All eyes darted over to where Sophie was standing.  When she turned around, Biana was still invisible.

"Yes!" Dex shouted, appearing from behind her.  "Caught you!  Wait- where's Biana?"

"Um... not here? Maybe I was a diversion?" Sophie sounded so dubious, there was no way they could've believed it.

But they did.

"Keep her trapped up there!" Keefe shouted teasingly, as he emerged from the clearing, his hair soaked. Linh shot another blast of water in his face and Fitz clapped politely.

"I'm going to make a hole for you to climb out," Sophie whispered, trying to keep her mouth from moving so it wouldn't look to suspicious.  She snapped a branch of the tree, and carefully poked through the netting.  Biana took her hand, and they fell out of the tree together.

"They're gone!" Fitz was the first to notice.  He clenched his teeth angrily. "Biana was in there."

Sophie stumbled away from them, glad that they couldn't see her as they raced towards the base.  Linh, Dex, and Fitz looked like they were trying to wield off the tooth fairy in the dark- Linh was blasting jets of water wherever she could do it, Fitz running around wildly, and Dex throwing around little bronze coils all across the clearing.

"We won!" Biana shouted, as they faded into view and stepped into their base.

"Yay," Keefe grumbled unenthusiastically, his whole body drenched in water.  Sophie laughed and playfully swatted her hand at his hair.

And as they all headed inside, soaked and drenched, dripping with water and laughing, Sophie's mind might've lifted off of her worries for just a little bit.

But the hope dissipated just as fast as they heard two words, echoing off of Tam's Imparter.  Wylie.

"Maruca's gone."