“Uh, my job is to observe and I’m clearly observing something very messed up,” Jackson said.

Flinch stepped to the window and let out a gasp. “Pufferfish. Are you seeing what we’re seeing?”

Jackson heard Ruby’s voice crackle in his head. “Robot piñatas.”

“Piñatas as in plural?” the hyper boy asked.

“Yes, there’s a dozen or so flying all over the house. Something’s coming out of them. OK, that’s a missile launcher. Get everyone to safety!”

There was a terrible explosion, and the window Jackson and Flinch were standing in front of shattered.

“I’ve got to help the others,” Flinch said as he reached into his pocket, took out a candy bar, and devoured it. “Braceface, your only job is to stay here and keep the doctor safe. No matter what happens, stay with the doctor.”

“What if we’re attacked by killer piñatas?”

Jackson never got his answer. The sugar was coursing through Flinch, and a smile spread across his face. He shouted, “I am mighty!” and a moment later he leaped out the broken window.

“My daughter!” Dr. Munoz said.

“She’ll be safe,” Jackson said. “There are six of us here. Just stay with me. The team will handle this.”

“I’m going to get my daughter.” Dr. Munoz raced out of the room, his files clutched in his hand.

“Dude, come back here!” Jackson cried out, but it was clear that the doctor wasn’t listening. He scooped up the nervous guinea pig and shoved it in his pocket. Then he focused on Ruby’s face. “Hello?”

Ruby’s voice rang in his ears. “What is it, Braceface? We’re kind of busy fighting evil candy containers.”

“You told me to observe, so I thought I would tell you I’m observing Dr. Munoz running in your direction,” Jackson said.

Ruby groaned. “Stop him!”

“So, you’re giving me permission to get involved?”

Ruby roared.

“Good. By the way, he’s worried about his daughter. If you see a girl carrying a stick, keep her safe. And do yourself a favor. Take the stick away from her. Jackson out.”

“Code names only, Braceface.”

“Stop calling me that,” Jackson said as he raced after Dr. Munoz. He turned a corner and found the scientist cowering on the floor, files scattered at his feet, with a flying piñata hovering overhead. The machine’s red eyes turned the dark hallway a creepy crimson, and its missile launchers hummed eagerly by its side.

Jackson stopped in his tracks. “Doctor, everything is going to be OK. I want you to get behind me. Whoa. Not so fast, just very calmly.”

The piñata followed the doctor’s every movement.

“OK, now, let’s back around this corner,” Jackson said.

Before they could take a single step, the piñata’s red eyes blinked, something inside it started to whir, and smoke billowed out of its back. Before Jackson could react, it launched a missile straight for his head.

His braces swirled in his mouth, and in a flash they were morphing and twisting to create a large, round shield. The missile hit the shield, which deflected the blast and sent it back toward the robot. A moment later the robot, and most of the wall behind it, was on fire. Unfortunately, the files with the schematics inside went up in flames as well.

Jackson had no time to be upset. He dragged the doctor down the hall and out the front door. Unfortunately, another piñata was waiting on the lawn. Jackson could already feel his braces changing. A long lobster claw reached out of his mouth, grabbed the piñata by the neck, and cut it in half. The evil red light of its eyes flickered to black.

Jackson and the doctor moved across the lawn. “I have to save Elizabeth!” Munoz cried as he pulled away from Jackson. “I won’t leave without her.”

“Doctor, it’s not safe here. The others are looking for her. I’m sure she’s fine,” Jackson said.

That’s when the door on the nearby delivery van swung open and a certain platinum blonde goon stepped out. The Hyena had a grin on her face until she saw Jackson.

“You!” she cried. “What are you doing here?”

“Rescuing this guy from killer robots. Are these piñatas yours?”

The Hyena smiled proudly.

“He’s under my protection, Mindy,” Jackson said.

The Hyena scowled. “Does everyone know my name?”

“You’ll have to kill me to get at him,” Jackson said, mustering all his bravery.

“Hmmm,” the Hyena said as she reached in the van and took out two silver sai with jagged points. “Well, I’m only being paid for the one kill, but a girl’s got to do what she’s got to do to get ahead.”

She swung the sai at Jackson, but his braces swirled and out popped sai of his own. They blocked the blows before they could do any damage.

“We know you work for Jigsaw. We also know he’s a nutcase.”

“Everyone’s a little quirky,” the Hyena said.

She slashed at Jackson’s shoulder, but his braces blocked the swing.

“He’s behind the kidnappings, right?”

It was then that the Hyena flung down one of her sai and with her free hand threw a punch that knocked Jackson to the ground. While he was struggling against unconsciousness, he felt the goon stamp her boots down on his braces, preventing him from using them to fight back.

“He’s building something, right?” Jackson sputtered. “Do you know what it is?”

“I don’t get paid to know that stuff,” she said. “I’m paid to kill people and you happen to be in the way.”

“You have to listen to me. Jigsaw is building a machine that will destroy the world. He’s insane, Mindy. He’s going to kill billions of people.”

“Not my problem. Now, where were we?” she asked as she pointed her sai at Dr. Munoz. “Oh, yeah, I was sent here to kill you.”

Just then, little Elizabeth Munoz came racing around the corner of the house. Tears were in her eyes as she attached herself to her father’s legs. “Don’t kill my daddy,” she begged the Hyena.

Jackson watched the Hyena study the little girl. Instead of cold-blooded murder, he saw something soft in her eyes. He hadn’t met any contract killers in his life, but he was sure they were supposed to have ice in their veins. The Hyena looked as if she might cry.

“I’m not going to kill your daddy,” she said. “We’re only playing, honey.”

The little girl looked up into the former beauty queen’s face. “Playing?”

The Hyena nodded. “We’re playing Zorro. Your dad was Zorro. I’m the villain. He just threatened to take me to jail and I was about to run away. You know what? Why don’t you and your daddy play now.”

Elizabeth wiped the tears from her eyes. “I like to play imagination.”

The Hyena lowered her sai. “I always did too.”

She stepped off of Jackson’s braces, and they slipped back into his mouth. Before he could get to his feet, the Hyena and her van were disappearing down the dusty road.

As the black helicopter soared over the frozen tundra below, the Hyena reviewed what had happened at Munoz’s house, and she was not happy. For months the Hyena had dreamed of the day when she stopped talking about being an assassin and actually became one, but the kid with the braces had ruined it all. She knew Jigsaw was a nutcase, but had managed to find a way to tolerate the idea. What she couldn’t stand was a liar. Jigsaw’s master plan wasn’t about taking over the world—it was about destroying it. She knew Jigsaw was building some kind of doomsday weapon, but she had assumed he’d use it to hold the world hostage. Mad-genius types never used their weapons. They just tried to scare the willies out of people so they’d cough up a ransom. But if what the kid had said was true, Jigsaw was planning something so … so … so diabolical. Mass murder was not why she had gotten into her line of work. Trained assassins killed people one at a time.