"Take aim!" Bradly shouted from the ground and I could hear the gears of every catapult grinding as the students geared them up and make sure they were aiming at the right place. With my heart beating like a hummingbird in flight, I quickly descend from the top of the catapult and attempted to stop my hands from shaking due to the amount of adrenaline that was pumping through my veins. Grace descended swiftly and landed next to me with a light thud. I turned to give her what I thought was a reassuring smile. I had never felt so alive and aware of everything in my entire life, it was like everything was coming into hyper focus, and I was drinking in every detail like I was soaking up water in a desert.

"Load!" Bradly shouted, waving his arm in the air for emphasis and I watched as Aulia loaded one of the exploding bombs onto the catapult. The unassuming little ball was no larger than my fist, yet the glistering liquid inside it could blow the roof off a building.

"Ready." Bradly commanded, and this time, I could hear a quiver in his voice. He wasn't as calm as he looked. I looked down to the ground level and Diego caught my eye. I smiled at him, hoping would comfort him a little in this situation.

Scanning the crowd, I tried to spot any familiar faces and terrified of the idea that I would find my friends among them. But for now most of them were so far away that I couldn't even tell whether they were male or female underneath all those layers of clothes. I focused on the group loitering right outside our walls, of about twenty to forty people dressed in black combat fatigues and wielding some kind of metallic rods. They happened to be directly outside our section of the wall, away from the main gate, and I watched them with a close eye, ready to launch into action as soon as they make a move.

"Are we really going to launch bombs at them?" Orla came up to me and whispered in my right ear. I turned around and could see the fear on her face. She looked like she was both scared and torn, and I understood that because about six months ago I was in her shoes. She wanted to protect her life, her friends, but she was way out of her comfort zone with what we were about to do.

"I can't lie to you, Orla." I started, looking at her right in the face. Delaying telling her the truth was a useless cause, and would only hurt her in the long run. "This is war. They are here to capture us, and for what we don't know. It's either fight them, or face whatever fate they have in mind for us."

Orla's face turned slightly green and I could tell she didn't expect me to say what I had said. After a few second of internal struggle, she smiled at me and nodded.

"Thanks, Gail." She said, wringing her hands together and giving me another smile. "Thanks for being so honest with me. I needed that." With that, she started to go back down as standby next to the catapult wheels with Ivan. I could see her hands were shaking, and her world had probably been rocked to the core by all these. I sighed, feeling the guilt of what I just did and tried to shake them all away, knowing that I did the right thing.

Turning my attention back to the battlefront, I breathed a silent sigh of relief when I noticed that the approaching masses and the group right outside hadn't moved, yet.

"Hey, about what you just said," Grace started, and I saw that she and Aulia had been listening to my conversation with Orla. "I want you to know that you are right. About making a choice."

I gave her a small smile, thankful for the fact that she felt like she had to mention this to me. Not everyone would take what I just said nicely, but I was happy that at least some of the team wz handling the situation well.

"We can't help what kind of situation we get thrown in," Aulia said, giving me a smile that looked wise beyond her years. "All we can do is to deal with the situation as best as we can."

Looking out into the field, I realised that this was essentially what had been happening to me since the moment that Legre entered London Citybase. I looked out there and wondered for a second what fate awaits us, and I knew that we had to win this fight if I were to have any chance of finishing what Akram started.

"Launch!" All of a sudden Bradly's voice rung throughout the field, in conjunction with the crisp sound of glass shattering. My heart skipped a beat as everyone instinctively released the bombs from the catapult and it soared through the air, right over the wall and in front of the small army.

The sound of explosive echoed through my ears and I could feel the ground beneath me shaking due to the amount of bombs that just detonated. I craned my neck to see how it affected the enemies, but the smoke and dust the explosion caused were too dense for me to see anything.

Deciding to throw caution to wind once and for all, I took a deep breath and let my mind drift out to sense my surroundings. Now that the barrier is gone, my mind flitted past the wall easily and quickly. In milliseconds, I was getting a live feed from the battlefield.

Feeling through the small group at the front, I noted that they were all in a crouching position with their arms covering their faces to fend off the dust. Counting that there were twenty-three of them in total, from what I could tell from the initial scan none of them were anyone that I know.

Slightly relieved, I like my mind skirt past the group. I took another deep breath and fanned out my mind. I didn't know how far back the masses of people spread, or how surrounded we were, but my heart sank as I stretched my minds to its limits trying to follow the human ring around the campus.

There were hundreds of them surrounding us, and for a second I couldn't understand how they managed to mobilise so many people in such a short amount of time. Surely the UGE would notice all the people congregating around the Academy. But then I noticed one strange thing – most of them seemed to show up identical in my mind, as though they were the same person.

An absurd idea entered my mind, and as the dust cloud began to dissipate faster, I acted on my instinct and tried not to think about what I was about to do.

Gathering my mind together in one place, I plucked a spear off the floor from someone who had dropped it and aimed it at the figure who had the strongest aurora out of all the identical ones. As soon as the spear spiralled out of my mental grip, I pulled my mind back and cringed at what was about to come.

A scream pierced through the air and my heart tightened at the fact that I just threw a spear at someone. But just as I thought my hunch was incorrect, about two thirds of people that was on my radar flickered and disappeared altogether.

I tried not to think about the fact that I just killed a person, swallowing the bile rising up my throat and pushing it to the back of my mind so that I could focus on the battle ahead. My heart clutched as I noticed the fact the scream had died down, but just as well the dust had begun to settle and I was comforted by the sight that greeted us.

Every one of the attackers was now on the ground, but the number of them had dramatically reduced. This caused a wave of mutterings to break out between the students and Bradly wasted no time in instructing everyone to launch a second round of attack.

"Gail, get tour team out." Bradly shouted above all the noises and chaos, gesturing for a few people to man our catapult and for us to get out. I immediately understood that this was part of the plan for us to get out and escape, but this wasn't what I wanted to do. I wasn't going to abandon the Academy, or anyone again.

Having said that, we couldn't drive them out without actually getting out. Turning around to look at the rest of my team, I saw a mixture of emotions displayed on their faces; fear, excitement, nerves, but most of all, determination.

"Let's go guys." I waved for everyone to gather around me, hopping off the catapult and making an uncharacteristically graceful landing at the bottom. Ignoring the whistle from Casey, I gestured again for everyone to follow me and made my way towards the wall.

"What's the plan?" Ivan asked immediately as I spin around to face everyone, just as Bradly shouted for the third rounds of bombs to be loaded. I knew for a fact that there were only enough bombs for about twelve rounds from each catapult, and I hoped that Bradly knew what he was doing and wasn't wasting all the bombs in one go.

Tapping my mind out again to detect a safe exit point, I saw that some of the attackers had donned on masks and some kind of goggles and were starting to regroup. Cursing under my breath, I located a deserted section of the wall and looked around for anything that would give us a boost over to the other side. The front gate was out of equation, since it was under complete lock and seal because it's the weakest point of entry. Pausing a second to make sure that the Academy's own emergency force field wasn't going to turn on just yet. Getting Ivan to grab the lone rubbish bin that was somehow left standing on the school field.

"I will go first." Almost swatting me out of the way, Diego hoped onto the rubbish bin and disappeared to the other side without another word. Fuming at his audacity, I was beginning to wonder if he had some kind of hero complex with the need to protect everyone.

Jumping onto the lid of the rubbish bin, I hoisted myself over the wall in one swift move. Bracing my knees, I landed on the ground with a roll to minimise noise and get out of the way of whoever was coming next.

Getting up into a squatting position, I gave Diego a glare just as Aulia and Casey landed in quick successions. The rest of the team arrived without a glitch, but then Viktor's stumbled over almost gave me a heart attack. Diego and I had to catch him before he landed as a heap and make a ruckus.

"I thought you said you can climb a fence?" I heard Casey whispered furiously at Viktor, who had turned a shade of scarlet.

"I, er slipped." Viktor stuttered, and almost everyone rolled their eyes and I had to stop Iva from making a sarcastic remark by giving him an evil glare.

Putting a finger on my lip, I knew that we were both at an advantage and disadvantage in the fact that I could see the enemy while the rest can't. But I was willing to bet that those goggles they put on were some kind of vision aid that would help them see in all conditions.

Spreading my mind out once more, I tried to tap into the thoughts of the group closest to us but to no avail. I could still feel their presence clearly, but it was like their mind was as blank as a white canvas.

Shaking my head, I drew my mind away from trying to get in their heads and focused on taking in the overall situation. Only a few others in the ring outside had masks and goggles, and the majority of them were still immobile from the dust storm created by the bombs. There were quite a few craters created by the bombs that would definitely make their journey over to us more difficult.

"Let's go capture someone." I smiled, feeling Diego's eyes boring a hole into my head at my blatant disregard of Mr. Andrewson's order. But I thought he of all people would understand that I wanted to do what I believed to be the right thing.

Gathering everyone around in a tight square, I started to give them detailed instructions as to what we were about to do. I could see that everyone was taking this very seriously and nodding, but I was worried about Orla and Ivan; the former was obviously petrified of the situation, and the latter seemed to think that he had it all down. But I knew for a fact that he didn't. And his way of thinking definitely wouldn't help on the field.

"Stay safe." I bid farewell to everyone except Viktor, who I kept by my side as he had no power to protect himself. Nodding to him, I closed my eyes and began phase one of the plan.

Searching through everyone's mind, I finally located the other telepath in the Academy. Noticing that he had kept his mind closed off, I searched for a way in around his mental barrier.

Jared. I inserted my thought by assimilating to his brain wave, and I could feel him jumping in surprise. It's Abigail.

How are you doing this? I could sense Jared looking around as though he was trying to find me. He was in the Academy, helping to get the power supply to run again to reactivate the defensive barrier that was built in with the Academy.

Never mind that just now. How is the barrier looking? I asked, praying that this would be a favourable answer, because otherwise my plan would be a lot more difficult to execute.

We might be able to activate it again. Jared answered, his mind becoming more focused. We are just about to try it.

Can you wait for my signal? I asked, and Jared agreed easily. He wanted to ask me how the battler front was looking, but I told him that I would have to get back to him.

Smirking, I searched for Bradly among the crowd. After locating him, I was a little astonished to find his mental defence was virtually none-existent. Rolling my eyes at his rookie mistake, I easily broke through his mind wall and spoke in his mind.

Bradly, it's Abigail. I could feel his eyes widening, but I continued without giving him time to get over it. I need you to fire another round of bombs immediately after the wall defence goes out again.

Before he had a chance to answer, I cut our connection and turned around to nod at Viktor. Keeping low, we made our way towards the big group at the back, making sure that we stayed low and quiet the entire time.

Gritting my teeth, I ignored the headache that was building up like a kettle coming to a boiling point. Locating Casey, Diego and Aulia, I gave each of them a light tug on the sleeves – the agreed signal for the start of our campaign.

Standing up, I nodded at Viktor and the two of us began to run back towards the Academy, this time making some noises as I went. I made sure that I was monitoring each and every one of them closely and I could sense that all of us were being detected and were being in pursuit. I made sure that we were slow enough that they were catching up to us, and to be honest, I couldn't run fast enough with the rate that I was using my power.

Sensing that Diego had sent Orla back over the wall, I breathed a silent sigh of relief as she stumbled back into safety. The group of five that were chasing them were debating whether or not to follow them in, and I cursed when they began to retreat. No matter, we still had three other teams.

Within seconds, we made it back to the front of the wall again. Viktor had already begun making an attempt to go back over the wall and I pretended to look around in panic. As soon as Viktor had also made a safe landing back, and I started to make a show of struggling over the wall.

A few seconds into the show, I could hear footsteps closing in and a hand started to grab onto my ankle. Gasping, I turned around and stared into a monstrous face with huge gas mask with black visor goggles.

"Abigail!" Viktor shouted, panicking and started grabbing my hands to tug me over. I was a little touched by his concern, and I did feel scared when the man grabbed hold of my feet, but I knew that if things started going south I could always force him off.

"Gail!" I could hear Aulia's screams echoing from the far side of the wall I realised that a much larger group had gone after her; she had let Ivan gone back over first and was dangling on the wall right now and I knew that I had to act now.

Picking up the rubbish bin lid, I slammed it into the man that was holding onto her and Aulia promptly stumbled back into the premises of the Academy. Then waiting to make sure that the guy's grip on my leg was strong enough, I managed to swing the unsuspecting man over the wall, and I used this momentum to pull myself in right after him.

"Now!" I shouted with both my mind and my voice, and Jared immediately hit the button to reactivate the barrier. A checked grid made out of white hot electricity came on, and the sizzling smell of burnt flash accompanied by agonising screams spread across the barrier.

Before the gas mask dude had a chance to regain his composure, I rolled over and using the force of my body to kick him right in the face, knocking him out.

"Ivan!" I heard Aulia's scream and whipped my head around, my captive momentarily forgotten. Sprinting towards the source of the noise, I ran along with the curve of the wall and almost collided into Aulia who was running towards me.

"That idiot!" She gasped, grabbing me by my shoulders as I did the same to her to stabilise one another. "He snuck back out to the other side and now he's hurt."

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Phew - I felt like this chapter is one of the longest one I had ever written! And honestly I never had less idea of how the chapter would turn out at the end than this one.

But I am kind of satisfied with it - I like it when the story take holds of itself and send me in the direction that it's best suited.

I am officially going to update every Thursday now! And for those of you who are following me and the other 10 awesome sci-fi author on SciKick would know how awesome they are! By luck I am in the same city as one of the authors and would meet up with him to get a signed copy of his book! Eeek

So enough of my boring life - don't forget to comment and vote, let me know what you think of all these new people :)