Superhero Squad

by Alesha Dixon

  He chuckled and Mum narrowed her eyes at him.

  “But … er … the most important thing to remember here is that we’re family and, despite our … um, secrets, we have to stick together,” he said hurriedly. “Right, Kiyana?”

  Mum inhaled deeply. “I suppose.”

  “Right, Nanny Beam?”

  “Right, Henry.” She smiled warmly at Kiyana. “You’ve made me very proud all these years.”

  The corner of Mum’s mouth twitched as she tried and failed to suppress a smile.

  At that moment, the door burst open behind us and Darek Vermore barrelled in, followed closely by Aunt Lucinda and Alfred, still wearing his new cape. I giggled, thinking of poor JJ.

  “Ah, Darek!” Nanny Beam said, beckoning him over. “I’ve been wondering where you’d got to.”

  Nanny Beam put the chicken on the floor; it immediately stalked over to cluck at Alfred.

  “Sorry, Nanny Beam,” he spluttered, running a hand through his hair. “I’ve just been checking all the superheroes are OK and the security systems are back up and running.”

  “What’s going on in here?” Aunt Lucinda demanded. “Kiyana, why did you run away like that? The Bright Sparks are wondering where everyone has got to, not to mention an entire conference of superheroes.”

  “Is it true?” Mr Vermore asked Nanny Beam, ignoring Aunt Lucinda. “What they’re saying about David?”

  “Yes. Your assistant David Donnelly was actually the notorious Mr Mercury in disguise. He was working for someone else this whole time. But I’m afraid whoever he was working for made off with the Light of the World in one of your helicopters and Mr Mercury got away too, with their help.”

  Mr Vermore sunk down into the chair that Nanny Beam had occupied before. He buried his head in his hands.

  “So David Donnelly was behind all this,” he groaned. “He had access to everything.”

  I felt guilty seeing him so disheartened. I’d been so distracted by the idea of Darek Vermore being behind everything, I hadn’t even looked twice at David Donnelly.

  I clenched my fists thinking how easily I fell into Mr Mercury’s trap.

  “Mr Mercury worked out how to break into the safe,” Nanny Beam continued. “No doubt by hacking your personal files. He also knew how to put on a complete lockdown of the conference room, trapping all the superheroes so they couldn’t stop them. Quite genius, really.”

  Mr Vermore nodded and then lifted his gaze to meet mine. “I’m so sorry for thinking it might be you, Aurora. I really believed though that if you had taken it, you were just trying to protect it. Either way I knew you wouldn’t have wanted it for selfish reasons. I apologize for locking you in your room.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said hurriedly, as he smiled back. “I actually thought it was you who had taken it, so we’re both guilty of that mistake.”

  “But I let you down, Nanny Beam.” He sighed miserably. “I promised you that the precious stone would be safe here during the conference.”

  “Hold on, you two know each other?” Mum asked, wiggling her finger at Mr Vermore and her mother.

  “Ah, yes, I should explain,” Nanny Beam began. “One more secret you should know.”

  “What do you mean, one more secret?” Aunt Lucinda asked, raising her eyebrows. “What did I miss?”

  “Can we tell her?” I asked Nanny Beam excitedly.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Nanny Beam is head of the Secret Intelligence Service,” I explained to Aunt Lucinda, who blinked at me.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “Our mother has been working for MI5 all our lives and now she runs the department,” Mum added, pursing her lips. “Just a tiny family secret she revealed moments before your arrival.”

  Aunt Lucinda turned to look at Nanny Beam who nodded back at her. Alfred, who had been distracted by the chicken, snapped his head up on hearing this news and peered closely at Nanny Beam, before bowing dramatically at her feet.

  “Thank you, Alfred,” she chuckled. “No need for that.”

  “So, what could possibly be the other secret you have to tell us?” Mum asked curiously.

  Nanny Beam and Mr Vermore exchanged a glance before Nanny Beam cleared her throat, addressing Mum and Aunt Lucinda.

  “There was a reason that a few years ago, I asked Mr Vermore here to come on board as the official sponsor of any superhero conferences that would be held in the future. In my capacity as Head of SIS, he had my full support to build this extraordinary complex and host our superhero activity here. I felt safe in the knowledge that he understood our powers and our superhero nature a little better than others.” She hesitated. “And the reason I knew that was because he is, in fact, my nephew. Kiyana, Lucinda, meet your cousin, Darek.”

  Mr Vermore gave them an awkward wave.

  “Hi, cousins!” he said enthusiastically. “I think the Beam superpowers are AWESOME. I wish I had them.”

  “Wait a second,” I gasped as something suddenly clicked in my head. “It’s YOU! From the photo!”

  He gave me a strange look. “I’m sorry? Are you talking about my commercials?”

  “No, no, I knew I recognized you the first time we met. I thought it was from the television but something else was bothering me,” I explained. “At Nanny Beam’s I saw an old photo of her with her brother. And the little boy in the photo was you!”

  “Yes, Darek is the son of my brother, and although things between my sibling and I…” Nanny Beam paused, looking tense and Darek stared at his feet. “Well, never mind. Anyway, Darek has always stayed in touch and is fully aware of the Beam women’s heritage. I have watched his business ambition blossom with interest and when I thought it was suitable, I introduced him to the superhero world and brought him on as the sponsor. As Darek was under orders not to let the nature of my job be known, he wasn’t able to inform you of your family connection. But, there you have it.”

  Nanny Beam patted Darek gently on the shoulder.

  “Your father and I had our differences, but I know that he would have been very proud of you,” she said quietly to him. He beamed at her.

  “Wow!” Dad exclaimed when nobody else said anything. “This is quite a day!”

  “I’m so excited to get to know you both properly, as family,” Darek beamed. “And you, Aurora and Henry, of course. But I’m afraid I must dash. The press is swarming the Houses of Parliament, trying to get the lowdown on what happened and their attempts to find the entrance to the conference are causing a bit of hassle. Apparently, one of the reporters has been arrested for climbing the statue of Richard I and clubbing it with his shoe.”

  Nanny Beam chuckled. “How inventive. Off you go, Darek, and do some crowd control. I’ll take care of everything here.”

  “Oh, before I go,” Darek said, stopping at the door and addressing Mum and Dad, “I hear that your eldest, Alexis, is very talented when it comes to technology?”

  “That’s right,” I nodded proudly. “He was the one who worked out David Donnelly was bad news. He managed to track him down as the leak of all the stories to the press.”

  “I see.” Darek smiled. “He sounds exactly what I’m looking for in an intern. I’m always looking for the next star. Perhaps he’d like to spend a few weeks with me over the Christmas holidays. My company deals with the latest in technology and, as you can see, we have a close relationship with the government, so get to work on some pretty cool projects. He could come learn the ropes and gain some experience, if he’d like. It’s really the least I could do.”

  “I’m sure he’d love that,” Dad gushed. “We’ll pass on the message. Thank you, Mr Vermore.”

  He waved happily at us before bustling through the door and away down the corridor.

  “As if he is your cousin. And a good guy!” Dad said, when he’d disappeared. “I thought that if anyone was suspicious, it was him!”

  “Yes, Mr Mercury had a stroke of luck with that,” Nanny Beam agreed. “I hear that
Darek was very stressed and snappy under the pressure of such responsibility. He distracted everyone from his dim-witted assistant.”

  “Darek Vermore is our cousin,” Mum said under her breath. “Cousin! My mother is Head of the Secret Service.”

  “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had an overload of information and excitement for one day and could very much do with a hot chocolate,” Dad said, nudging me.

  “Yes. Me too!” I quickly agreed. “Let’s go get the Bright Sparks and head home. We have plenty to talk about.”

  “Good idea,” Mum said, looking very much still in shock. “I’ll call a taxi.”

  Dad put his arm round Mum and led her out. Aunt Lucinda sauntered along behind them while Alfred bent down so that the chicken could hop up on to his head and slide down his neck, nestling comfortably amongst Alfred’s feathers.

  “Hey, Nanny Beam,” I whispered. “When do you think we should mention to Mum about your flying car?”

  “Perhaps another time, Aurora,” she laughed, throwing her arm around my shoulders. “I think she’s had enough surprises for one day, don’t you?”

  19

  The week before school started again, Nanny Beam invited the whole family and my friends to stay at her house in Cornwall and enjoy the last of the sunshine.

  Along with the newest honorary additions to the Bright Sparks, of course.

  Cherry smiled, sipping some coconut water from her perch on the roof. “I could get used to this,” she said. “I wish this week didn’t have to end. I want to stay here in the UK for a bit longer.”

  We’d spent the afternoon lounging up here after a session of Sun Gazing with Nanny Beam. Suzie had been loving the practice so much that she’d announced earlier that she had decided to petition for Sun Gazing sessions when we were back at school. Mum said that Nanny Beam had never looked prouder.

  “The view is awesome,” Georgie nodded, rubbing the belly of the alpaca lounging next to her before rearranging her towel across the tiles. “How are those sunglasses working out for you, Aurora?”

  I pushed my Lightning Girl sunglasses up my nose. “They’re the perfect fit.”

  She grinned. “Just you wait until you see what I’ve done with your school blazer. Those accessories are going to blow your mind.”

  “As long as they don’t land me in detention.”

  “Oh, please,” she laughed. “Haven’t you heard? Nobody puts the mighty Lightning Girl in detention.”

  Since the showdown in front of the Houses of Parliament, my name had barely left the front page again. I was just glad that they were all saying nice things about Lightning Girl, now that my name had been cleared over the robbery of the Light of the World, but I was hoping that when I went back to school the attention would die down.

  After all that had happened this summer, I had decided that there would be no more personal appearances, product launches or photo calls. And especially, no more breakfast television shows.

  And since there wouldn’t be a Lightning Girl schedule any more, my PA felt there wasn’t much for her to do and so handed in her notice.

  “I think I’ll just stick to being your best friend,” Kizzy had told me, deleting my diary from her phone. “That’s a full-time job in itself, what with us saving the world and stuff. Besides, someone needs to remind you how to work those powers of yours.”

  She may have been joking, but it turned out that Kizzy was right.

  I’d ended up telling Mum all about how my powers wouldn’t work in the superhero training room that time with JJ and Cherry, but then in front of the Houses of Parliament, they had come out in full force. She had listened to me carefully and then when I’d asked why that had happened, she’d just said, “Well, isn’t it obvious?”

  I’d told her no, it wasn’t obvious, least not to me.

  “Aurora,” Mum had smiled, her eyes boring into mine, “your powers are part of who you are. You had lost faith in yourself, which reflected in your superpowers. Kizzy and all the Bright Sparks showing up that day to be by your side and remind you to believe in yourself… Well, from what I hear, it caused those light beams to be more powerful and dazzling than ever.”

  I had been stunned at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it completely made sense.

  Obviously, I couldn’t tell the Bright Sparks about this due to ego reasons. Fred was already referring to himself as the Ultimate President of Crime Fighting to anyone who would listen.

  He’d even had business cards made and was handing them out on the Underground.

  “Hey, guys, listen to this,” Kizzy said enthusiastically from her spot on the corner of the roof. She cleared her throat and began to read aloud from the large book resting open in her lap.

  “Although cunning and resourceful, the notorious Blackout Burglar may not have been working alone. Detective Inspector Bumble, who worked on the Blackout Burglar’s 1998 robbery of the famous Snowdrop Tiara – a priceless item belonging to Lady Camilla Camomile – stood firm to his belief that the Blackout Burglar had been financed by an unknown source, despite many officers declaring the detective ‘doolally’. Without any evidence to support his theory, however, DI Bumble eventually gave up on the idea, quit the force a few years later and now runs a skateboarding business in Canada.”

  “What book is that?” Cherry asked, peering over her sunglasses at Kizzy.

  “It’s called Crime, Criminals and Cat Burglars Through the Ages. I got it out of the library for some light holiday reading,” she said. “Anyway, there’s a whole section in here about Mr Mercury.”

  “Sounds like that Detective Inspector Bumble might have been on to something,” I said thoughtfully. “Mr Mercury might have been working for the same person all those years ago when he was the Blackout Burglar.”

  “And whoever it is, it sounds like they’re very powerful,” Georgie pointed out. “They’ve been able to keep themselves out of his spotlight and they’ve been funding him the whole time.”

  “And now they’ve got their hands on the Light of the World,” I grumbled, my heart sinking just like it did any time I thought about that helicopter flying away into the sunset.

  “We’ll stop them, Aurora,” Kizzy said determinedly. “Nanny Beam said she’s already on the case of tracking them down. If anyone can find them, it’s Nanny Beam.”

  “Speaking of whom,” Georgie laughed, nodding down towards the ground, “what do you think they’re doing? Fred looks terrified.”

  Nanny Beam was standing with Fred, Suzie and JJ in the middle of the field next to the house. We couldn’t hear what was going on as they were too far away, but Nanny Beam seemed to be barking orders at them and flinging her arms around a lot, while Fred’s expression was full of worry. Kimmy had happily joined them in the field along with some of her new alpaca friends and was settling down in the grass to watch.

  Cherry smiled, picking up her headphones and placing them over her ears. “I can tell you exactly what she’s telling them,” she said. “Give me a moment.”

  After a few minutes of concentrated listening, she removed the headphones, sniggering.

  “What?” Kizzy asked eagerly. “What is it?”

  “Nanny Beam is teaching them some basic martial arts and, from the sounds of it, Fred isn’t sure who he wants to go up against first: JJ or Suzie.”

  We all erupted into infectious giggles.

  “It’s a difficult choice,” Kizzy laughed. “I mean, JJ does have super strength…”

  “But have you seen Suzie right before a gymnastics competition?” Georgie said. “When she wants to be, she is fierce.”

  “And it looks like she’s certainly a match for JJ,” Cherry pointed out.

  We watched Suzie swing her leg through the air in an impressive roundhouse kick. JJ ducked just in time, stumbling backwards into the grass, landing on his bottom. Nanny Beam gave Suzie a triumphant high-five before ordering them all into a straight line so she could begin teaching them the next move.
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  “If I were Fred, I’d pick to go up against JJ,” Kizzy said, and we all nodded along in agreement.

  “Aurora! Are you up there?” Mum’s voice called. “Can you come down for a minute?”

  I left the others and climbed back through the roof hatch, down the ladder where Mum was waiting for me.

  “Aunt Lucinda is about to set off,” she informed me. “I thought you’d want to say goodbye. She’s in the kitchen.”

  I hurried down the stairs and found Aunt Lucinda sitting with my dad and Clara at the kitchen table.

  “I’m telling you, Henry,” Aunt Lucinda was saying tiredly, “why would you send your daughter to science camp next year when she can come learn how to rob banks with me? It only takes a few weeks to learn the knack, and taking into consideration Clara’s superior intelligence, I’d say she’d be ready for her first shot at it in a matter of days.”

  Clara sniggered at Dad’s horrified expression.

  “There you are, Aurora,” Aunt Lucinda said, standing up and pulling me into a hug. “Just in time to say toodle-oo!”

  “Where are you off to on holiday this time?” I asked curiously. “Bora Bora? The Bahamas? Fiji?”

  “Actually, I can’t say,” she said, tapping the side of her nose. “It’s less of a holiday and more of a business trip. Mummy’s orders.”

  “Nanny Beam is sending you on a mission?” Clara gasped. “Cool!”

  “Yes, I suppose we must all play our part in finding where the Light of the World is and I’m hoping to squeeze in at least a little downtime,” Aunt Lucinda replied.

  “Nanny Beam will have her eye on you.” Mum grinned, causing Aunt Lucinda to roll her eyes dramatically.

  “Anyway, don’t tell Alfred,” Aunt Lucinda said hurriedly as we heard the familiar sound of Alfred’s stomping coming down the stairs. “He doesn’t do any work as a rule. It’s his philosophy, he wouldn’t come along with me if he knew. I’m having to pretend that we’re going to the Great Barrier Reef.”