The Awakening
Page 4
‘Now, what about the names you’ve been working on?’ Mr Arturi asked once they’d all had a chance to try out their new suits. ‘Ian’s got Inferno. What about the rest of you?’ He was enjoying this.
‘I came up with Zephyr,’ said Zaf. ‘It’s a type of breeze.’
‘Nice,’ smiled April. ‘I’m going to call myself Aqua – Latin for water.’
‘I found one that even sounds a bit like my real name,’ Tara said. ‘Terra Firma or just Terra for short. It means solid ground.’
Mr Arturi beamed. ‘Couldn’t have come up with better ones myself. Very catchy.’
‘I’ve also had an idea about what we could call our group,’ Zaf added. ‘You know how there are four of us - what about Factor Four? Factor is like an element.’
‘Has a ring to it,’ Ian admitted. ‘I like it.’ The others agreed.
‘Factor Four it is, then,’ said Mr Arturi. ‘Second order of business, what exactly do you want to do? How are you going to use your powers? I mean, we need to have a purpose. We can’t just shoot from the hip.’
‘Crime fighters?’ suggested Zaf.
‘Helping people?’ April added.
‘Rescuers, like we did the other day?’ Ian shrugged his shoulders.
Tara was quiet for a bit. The others waited to hear what she had to say.
‘I think there’s a way we can do all of those things.’ She hesitated. ‘I have something to tell you, guys. After the fire, I waited a few days until it was definitely not smouldering anymore, and I went back to the hillside. And I made it all grow back again.’
‘You did what?’ Zaf exclaimed.
‘The bushes, the trees, the whole thing. Go check it out. It’s completely green again.’
‘That’s fantastic, Tara.’ April gave her friend’s shoulder a squeeze.
‘But it got me thinking – we got these powers from deep within the earth, right? Well, maybe we’re meant to use them to return the favour.’
‘Like environmental activists?’ Mr Arturi asked. ‘I like the sound of that.’
‘Yeah, I guess that’s what I mean – only I was thinking more along the lines of eco-warriors. Cleaning up things, stopping environmental destruction, that kind of thing.’
The others thought about what Tara had just said. It made perfect sense.
The emergency radio in the plane buzzed to life, interrupting their thoughts. ‘Mayday, mayday. This is oil tanker North Star in the channel just off the Godwin Rocks. Run aground. Repeat we’ve run aground. Oil starting to spill. Mayday.’
Mr Arturi looked at the group and whistled. ‘Well, if that isn’t a sign, then I don’t know what is.’
The four got to their feet.
‘Looks like it’s time to get back to work,’ said Zaf.
‘Factor Four,’ said Tara with a smile.
‘Bringing you the power of earth, wind, fire and water,’ declared April.
‘About time too.’ Ian clapped his hands together. ‘I was beginning to get bored.’
Copyright © 2013 A & C Black
Text copyright © 2013 Paul Mason
Illustrations copyright © 2013 Sean Longcroft
First published 2013 by
A & C Black,
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
www.bloomsbury.com
This electronic edition published in February 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing
The right of Paul Mason and Sean Longcroft to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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eISBN 978-1-4081-8069-3
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