The Legacy Chronicles: Raising Monsters Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Excerpt from Generation One

  Excerpt from Fugitive Six

  About the Author

  Books by Pittacus Lore

  Back Ad

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER ONE

  SIX

  UNKNOWN LOCATION

  SIX RAN.

  The Mog, Eleni, was gone, whisked away by the teleporter Scotty. Six still had unfinished business with her. But it could wait. Her immediate concern was finding Sam and getting him out of the chamber he was being held in before it filled up with sand and his time ran out.

  The problem was, she had no idea where it was. Or where she was. Or if she and Sam were even in the same place. For all she knew, he was being held hundreds of miles away, in which case she’d never get to him in time. She pushed that terrible possibility out of her mind. She had to find him. And something told her that he wasn’t far away. She hated it when people talked about following their hearts, but that’s what she was doing now.

  Her footsteps echoed through the corridor as she ran, and she wondered vaguely if she was underground. Something about the windowless hallway, the smell of the air circulating through the building, the way sound moved, all made her think that she was below the surface of the earth. That too could wait. Right now, she needed some kind of direction.

  The corridor was oddly empty. There were cameras mounted on the walls at regular intervals, so she assumed she was being watched by someone. She also assumed that there were probably other Mogs around. Why had none of them come to confront her? They must know her Legacies weren’t working, at least not to full capacity. The brief return of her telekinesis had come at just the right time, allowing her to break her chains and get away from Eleni. But she worried that it was temporary, maybe only revived by her urgent need to rescue Sam.

  She wished her invisibility would return, too. She hated that her moves were almost certainly being tracked. Not that she could really go anywhere but forward at the moment. There were doors lining the corridor, but the ones she tried were all locked. It was as if she was being herded in one direction.

  When she came to the end of the hallway, it split in two directions, left and right. More empty stretches of nothing with no discernible ends. Her frustration grew. And then she heard a sound. To her left, a door opened and a girl walked out. She was looking at something she held in her hand, and didn’t see Six.

  Six concentrated hard. She looked down and saw her body flickering in and out of visibility. Come on, she thought, trying to force her Legacy to work through sheer determination. She could almost feel her powers trying to respond. And then they did. She disappeared.

  The girl was now walking away from her. Six darted forward and grabbed her, putting her arm around the girl’s throat from behind and clamping one hand over her mouth.

  “Don’t scream,” she whispered in the girl’s ear. “Not a word. Understand?”

  The girl nodded. Six couldn’t see her face, but she noted the girl’s hair, which was cut very short and dyed pink. For a moment it reminded her of Nemo’s turquoise-colored hair, and she hoped the young Garde was okay.

  “Good,” Six said. “Now I’m going to ask you a question. I think my friend is being held here in a room or chamber or something that is filling up with sand. Do you have any idea what I’m talking about?”

  She held her breath, hoping the girl would nod again. She did.

  “Do you know where it is?”

  Another nod.

  “You’re going to take me there,” Six said. “As quickly as you can. We don’t have much time. Is it far?”

  The girl shook her head. Six’s heart filled with hope.

  “Start walking,” she told the girl. “I’m going to remove my hand. If you scream, you’ll regret it.”

  She took her hand away from the girl’s mouth. They started walking, Six keeping one hand on the girl’s arm to remind her she was there.

  “I know who you are,” the girl said in a soft voice. “You’re Six.”

  Six didn’t respond.

  “I heard you were here,” the girl continued. She sounded excited. “Everyone has been talking about it. And the friend you’re looking for, that’s Sam.”

  The girl stopped in front of what looked like three sets of elevator doors.

  “We have to go down another level,” she said, pressing some buttons on a keypad beside one of the doors.

  Six didn’t like the idea of being trapped in an elevator, but she had no choice but to believe the girl was telling the truth.

  “My name is Maggie,” the girl said as they waited.

  “What are you doing here, Maggie?” Six asked her. “What is this place?”

  The elevator doors opened, and they stepped inside. Six maintained her position at Maggie’s back.

  “I’m not sure, exactly,” Maggie said as the elevator descended. “They brought us here after what happened in Mexico.”

  “You were on the ship?” Six asked.

  “No,” Maggie said. “I was somewhere else. But they transferred us here. I don’t even really know where here is.”

  Six had a lot of questions. She also briefly worried that the girl might have a Legacy that would pose a problem. Then the elevator stopped, the doors opened, and they stepped out into another corridor. It was narrower than the previous one, and darker. There were no doors lining it.

  “What is this?” Six asked.

  “A maintenance area,” Maggie said. “Engine rooms and stuff. Almost nobody comes down here except the work crew.”

  Six felt something inside of her shift, like a current of electricity shorting out. She was visible again. She glanced around, saw no cameras. Not that it mattered much. If she was being tracked, she would just have to deal with whatever happened.

  “There you are,” Maggie said.

  “Where’s Sam?” said Six. She didn’t know if she could even trust this girl, but she really had no choice. Sam was running out of time.

  “Down here,” the girl answered. “Through that door at the end.”

  Six hurried her along. While she was relieved not to have confronted any resistance, it also worried her. Sam was too important to leave unattended, especially when Eleni surely knew that finding him would be Six’s number one priority. She kept waiting for the Mog to appear out of thin air, teleported by Scotty.

  They came to the door Maggie had indicated. Six pushed on it. It didn’t budge.

  “There’s a scanner,” Maggie said, pointing to a keypad on the wall. She placed her hand against it. “Guess you’re lucky I had janitor duty this month, huh?” She giggled. It was a strange sound, childlike, and Six wondered why the girl would have been given access to a room requiring such sophisticated clearance. She started to ask.

  Then the door slid open and the question was forgotten as Six practically pushed Maggie inside. The door shut behind them. Six looked around. The room was not very large. One wall was lined with monitors and a bank of controls of various kinds. In the center was a large metal box about eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet high.

  “He’s in there,” Maggie said, indicating the box.

  “How do I get him out?” asked Six. She ran her hands over the surface of the box. There was no obvious way to open it.

 
Behind her, Maggie sighed. “Do I have to do everything?”

  Something about the girl’s voice had changed. Six swung around, suddenly alert. Maggie was looking at her and smiling. For the first time, Six had a chance to look directly at her face. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed earlier. This girl wasn’t a Human Garde.

  “You’re a Mog.”

  Maggie laughed. “You sound just like Max!” she said. “Well, I thought Maggie sounded more . . . human. But my name is actually Magdalena.”

  Six didn’t know what to do. Had she been trapped? It certainly felt that way. And yet, the Mogadorian seemed totally relaxed. She walked over to the control panel and started pushing buttons.

  “What are you doing?” Six said, rushing over and grabbing her, pulling her away from the buttons and switches.

  “Do you want to save Sam or not?” Magdalena asked her. “Because I’m your only chance, and I’d say you have about thirty seconds left before that chamber is completely filled and he won’t be able to breathe.”

  Six had no choice. She let the Mog go.

  Magdalena went back to work. “There,” she said after pressing one final button.

  Six went over to the metal box. “It’s not opening,” she said.

  “I didn’t open it yet,” said Magdalena. “I just stopped the sand.”

  “How do I know you did anything?” Six asked.

  “You don’t,” said Magdalena. “But I promise you I did.”

  “Why would I believe a Mog?”

  “Because you don’t have any choice,” Magdalena said. “Don’t you think if I wanted you dead, you would be?”

  “So why are you helping me?”

  Magdalena leaned against the instrument panel. “I mostly let Eleni decide how to handle situations like this,” she said. “In this instance, though, I think she’s letting her personal feelings get in the way. Also, the cards told me you would be important.”

  “Cards? What cards?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said the Mog. “The important thing is, I need something from you, and I can’t get it if you’re dead. To tell the truth, I don’t care what happens to your boyfriend. You’re the one I really want. But I thought you’d be more likely to help me if you were reunited with him. Right?”

  Six didn’t answer. The Mog was playing a game of some kind, and Six knew all too well that Mog games had rules that worked only in their favor.

  “Is that a no?” Magdalena asked. She put her hand over one of the buttons on the console. “Should I start the sand flowing again?”

  “What is it you want?” Six snapped.

  Magdalena frowned. “Your tone could be a little nicer,” she said. “But I get it. You’re under a lot of stress right now. As for what I want, it’s not a big deal. We’ll get to that later. I think we need to hurry things along. Scotty is only going to be able to distract Eleni for so long.”

  “Wait,” Six said. “You set that up?”

  “I needed to get you alone,” Magdalena said. “I admit I didn’t count on you breaking your chains. That was a coincidence. But it made the whole thing look totally believable, so thanks for that.”

  Six had no idea what was going on. What did she want? And why did she have to do it away from Eleni? Nothing was making sense.

  “Did I mention that in addition to turning off the sand, I might also have stopped air from filling the chamber?” Magdalena said. She covered her mouth with her fingertips. “Oops. My bad.”

  “Turn the air back on,” Six ordered.

  “No,” Magdalena said. “Either he comes out or he dies. And that’s up to you. Do we have a deal?”

  Six was studying the console as she spoke, wondering whether she could use it without the Mog’s help.

  “You could probably get the air back on, sure,” Magdalena said. “But then there’s the little problem of actually opening the chamber. Only Eleni and I know the codes for that.”

  Anger flared up in Six, and she made a step towards the Mog.

  “Scotty,” Magdalena said. “I may need you to get me out of here.”

  Six stopped. She should have known the Mog would have some kind of communication device. She stood still, glaring at Magdalena.

  “This is starting to feel awkward,” the Mog said. “Maybe it was a bad idea.”

  The girl was really starting to get on Six’s nerves. She wanted nothing more than to get her hands on her, force her to let Sam out of the metal box. If he’s even in there, she thought. For all she knew, this whole thing was a ruse.

  “What exactly do you want from me?” she said, trying to keep her voice even.

  The Mog harrumphed. “Okay, fine. I’ll tell you,” she said. “See, the thing is, there’s this parasite.”

  “What parasite?”

  “The one inside you,” Magdalena said. “I put it in while you were knocked out.”

  “You put something inside me?” Six said.

  The girl nodded. “It’s kind of what I do,” she said. “Experimenting, I mean. Eleni is the fighter. Byron is the planner. Well, was. Before that girl you had with you killed him. That wasn’t very nice, by the way. And it really pissed off Eleni, which is another reason I needed to get you away from her. She isn’t taking the whole thing very well.”

  Six tried to process a lot of things at once, but settled on one. “What the hell did you put in me?”

  “Right,” Magdalena said. “Well, like I said, it’s a parasite. I haven’t given it an official name yet. Not that you probably care what it’s called. Anyway, it attaches to the brain. You know how your Legacies have been blocked?”

  Six hesitated. Then she decided there was no point in denying it. “Because of what Drac injected us with.”

  “At first, yes,” Magdalena said. “The serum. That was one of our early projects. We’ve since moved on, and now I think this works perfectly. Well, maybe that’s not the right word. There’s still the issue of the parasite maybe killing you.”

  Six didn’t know whether to believe anything the Mog was saying. Her Legacies felt like they might actually be coming back. And this girl seemed more than a little bit crazy.

  “There’s a chance it won’t kill you,” Magdalena continued, seemingly oblivious to Six’s growing rage. “But it did kill the humans I tried it out on. I feel a little bad about that.” She paused, giggled. “Actually, no, I don’t feel bad. I mean, they’re only humans, right? They were perfectly happy to kill us during that whole battle-for-Earth thing. Of course, so were you, so . . .” Her voice trailed off as she looked at the watch on her wrist. “Hey, you know Sam is probably on his last breaths.”

  Six’s heart was pounding as the anger inside of her boiled over. She was sure now that the Mog girl was insane. If there was something in her head, surely she should be feeling it. But if what she said about a parasite was true, Six needed to know what she was dealing with. “What does it do?”

  “Oh, it feeds on your brain,” Magdalena said. “And I’m pretty sure that’s why your Legacies are affected, although I don’t entirely know why because, well, nobody is really sure how they work in the first place, are they? But that’s how we learn, by experimenting!”

  “You said you wanted something from me,” Six reminded her.

  Magdalena sighed. “Here’s the thing,” she said. “I need the parasite to finish growing. That takes a while. Like, a couple of weeks. So you have to stay alive until then.”

  “That’s it?” Six said. “You need me to stay alive?”

  “For a couple of weeks,” Magdalena said. “And then I have to take the parasite out, so that I can see if it did what I hope it will do.”

  “Which is what?”

  “I can’t tell you that! It’s a secret. Besides, if I don’t take it out, then you’ll definitely die,” said Magdalena. “Sam, too. And Max.”

  “You put one of these things in Max?”

  The Mog nodded. “Don’t worry, though. He was asleep and didn’t feel a thing. But like
I said, these things definitely kill humans. So that’s part of the deal. If you let me take the one out of you, I’ll throw in Sam and Max, too.”

  The girl had to be joking. She couldn’t really expect Six to agree to be part of her twisted science experiment. If she was even telling the truth.

  “Nobody else will be able to take it out,” Magdalena said. “Trust me. If I don’t, it will have to come out by itself. That’s the part where you all die.”

  Six was still not convinced anything the Mog said was true. But there was no time to argue with her. “Get Sam out,” she said. “Now.”

  “So I’m taking that as a yes,” Magdalena said. She clapped her hands together like a little kid. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

  She turned to the console and started typing on a keyboard. A low hum filled the room. Six looked at the metal box, expecting it to open. When it didn’t, she turned back to Magdalena.

  “It’s not responding,” the Mog said.

  “What do you mean, it’s not responding?” said Six. “Did you type in the code?”

  Magdalena nodded. She typed again. “Eleni must have changed it.”

  “Can’t you override it?”

  Magdalena shook her head. “That’s kind of the point,” she said.

  “You need to get him out,” Six said.

  “Technically, I don’t,” said the girl. “He’s just my backup. You know, in case something happens to you. But I only need one of you alive for my experi—”

  The word was cut off as Six grabbed the Mog by the throat and squeezed. Magdalena looked at her, eyes wide as she gasped for breath.

  “Try calling Scotty now,” Six said.

  Magdalena’s hands beat uselessly at Six’s arms. Six maintained her grip and lifted the small girl off the ground.

  “Get Eleni in here,” she said.

  “She. Won’t. Do. It,” Magdalena squeaked.

  Six looked back at the box. She knew that this time at least the Mog was telling the truth. She released Magdalena, who slumped to the floor, sucking in air. Six ran to the box and banged on it with her fists.

  “Sam!” she shouted. “Sam! If you can hear me, you need to tell the machine to open!”

  She knew she sounded desperate. But she was. Their only chance was if Sam’s technopathy Legacy had returned. Whether it had or not, she had no idea.