Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7

by Pitt, Darrell

  ‘Absolutely.’

  Brian started to put together the pieces of what Morgan had told him. Here she was, a beautiful woman grieving for her husband, probably feeling a little lonely, a little confused, probably seeking someone to talk to. Maybe wanting a little comforting—

  ‘I have a bottle of a rather good French Bordeaux back in my hotel room,’ Morgan said. ‘Are you partial to red wine?’

  At that moment, Brian would have agreed if she’d suggested drinking petrol. Nodding, he gave the barman a good tip—making sure that Morgan saw the generous amount—and followed her outside.

  ‘I’m staying at the Winstead Arms just up the street,’ Morgan said, pointing. ‘I don’t like the hotel knowing my business. Would you mind waiting a few minutes before you come up?’

  ‘Not at all.’

  She handed him a swipe key to her room and told him she was staying in room eleven-sixteen. She’d be waiting for him. Brian watched her continue down the sidewalk. If she hadn’t just handed him a card to her room, he’d have thought she was dumping him. Of course, maybe it wasn’t the key to her room at all. Maybe it was just some old library card.

  Brian counted off the minutes before starting down the street after her. He found the hotel without difficulty, marched briskly past the main desk, and punched the elevator button without glancing over at reception. Making his way to the floor, Brian stopped outside her room. His hands shook as he swiped the card, and the light above the panel turned green.

  Bingo, he thought. I knew it was my lucky day.

  ‘Morgan?’ he called.

  ‘In the living room,’ her voice responded.

  Closing the door behind him, Brian walked down a short corridor. Here he found the woman standing in the middle of the room. Frowning, Brian looked down at his feet. The floor was covered in plastic as if it were being painted. And it reminded him of something else. What was it?

  Dexter. That freak serial killer always spread out plastic before he killed somebody.

  ‘What—’ He stopped in his tracks.

  ‘Did they see you down at reception?’

  ‘Yes,’ he lied. His heart was beating wildly, but now it was from fear. Still, this was a single, unarmed woman. There was no reason why he couldn’t escape. ‘I spoke to them. They know—’

  ‘You didn’t speak to them.’ Morgan shook her head slowly. ‘You didn’t say anything to them at all, Brian. You were a good boy. Weren’t you?’

  Brian tried to speak, but he couldn’t open his mouth. What the—? His jaw wouldn’t move. Now he tried to run, but his legs wouldn’t work. It was as if they were plastered to the floor.

  ‘Come over here,’ Morgan said.

  Against his will, he found himself walking across the plastic sheeting. He tried to scream, but he seemed to have completely lost control of his body. A sudden realization struck him. This woman was some kind of mod. A freak!

  She seemed to be able to read his mind. ‘My real name is Morgan Le Fay. You may have heard my name in conjunction with Arthurian legend. The ancients seemed to regard me as some kind of witch.’ Morgan shook her head and smiled sadly. ‘I’m too pretty to be a witch.’

  Brian tried with all his might to scream.

  ‘You’ll have to forgive me,’ Morgan continued. ‘You see, I’ve eaten so many people over the centuries that there remains no joy in the consumption.’

  Brian’s eyes opened with horror.

  ‘Now, the only joy remains in the preparation of the meal.’ Morgan could have been talking about cooking lasagne for dinner. ‘Now, be a good boy and open your mouth.’

  Brian felt his lips being forced apart.

  ‘Wider,’ Morgan instructed.

  His mouth opened wider, and still, he couldn’t make a sound.

  ‘You have lovely lips,’ Morgan said. She placed a forefinger against his bottom lip. For a single, entrancing second, Brian was captured again by her beauty. But only for a second. For she then slid her slender hand into his mouth, formed a fist, and punched it straight down his throat.

  Brian felt a shudder of agony as his insides were ripped apart. His eyes started to roll up into his head.

  ‘Oh, please no,’ Morgan soothed. ‘Don’t die too quickly.’

  But much to her disappointment, before she’d torn off his arms and legs and begun to eat him, Brian Hendrix’s eyes were staring into nothing. His heart thudded to a shuddering halt.

  ‘Disappointing,’ Morgan said. ‘Not my lucky day at all.’

  Chapter Two

  ‘Unlucky us,’ I said, peering down over the city. ‘Why do we end up with all the weirdos?’

  The robot stood as high as a city building. It looked vaguely like a giant spider, although it had only six legs and was made from a variety of shiny metals. Its body was circular in shape, whereas its head was a perfect oval. At the front of that oval lay a black windshield, and behind it, presumably, the crazy person in charge of it.

  We were in a Flex Fighter, zooming in low over the city. There were five of us in the aircraft: myself, Chad, Dan, Ferdy, and Ebony. Brodie had gone shopping earlier that day, and she hadn’t answered any of the frantic calls made to her cell. Obviously, her phone was off and her wallet open. This hadn’t worried me, but Agent Palmer—our immediate supervisor at The Agency—hadn’t been happy.

  I stared down at the monstrosity, glad that Brodie didn’t have to face this creature.

  ‘How big is that thing?’ Ebony asked.

  The thin, blonde girl hovered at my elbow.

  ‘Over fifty feet tall,’ Chad replied. ‘Maybe a hundred.’

  ‘It’s nothing Team Incredible can’t handle,’ Dan said.

  The four of us looked at him. Dan had been coming up with names for our group for months. Some had quite a ring to them, but this one had about as much tune to it as a trash can tossed down a flight of stairs.

  ‘Team Incredible,’ Ebony echoed. ‘Wow. I wonder if that’s already copyrighted.’

  ‘Ferdy will help.’ The boy’s eyes were focused on the giant robot. ‘Ferdy can smash the robot into pieces.’ He peered through the window. ‘The Titanic sank on the twelfth of April, nineteen hundred and twelve.’

  ‘Sure, Ferdy,’ I said. Ferdy’s autism made him difficult to work with sometimes. Trying to battle a giant robot could prove dangerous. ‘We’ll see how things pan out.’

  The robot had appeared only minutes earlier on the famous Sunset Strip, burrowing its way out of the ground like some sort of enormous groundhog. First picking up cars and flinging them about like toys, it had then turned its attention to the famous Luxor Hotel.

  Already, the mighty obelisk and the one hundred and ten-foot-high recreation of the Great Sphinx had been reduced to rubble. Now the metal creature lumbered across the wreckage towards the mighty pyramidal-shaped hotel.

  ‘There are thousands of people in there,’ I said. ‘If it crashes into the Luxor—’

  ‘Bring us into land,’ Ebony ordered the Flex.

  The voice-activated aircraft immediately swooped in low and settled close to the scene. The aircraft was a new experimental design; its computer system operated via a new bionugenic gel. It was supposedly faster and more responsive than any other craft developed by The Agency. The rear opened, and we piled out into the midst of a debris-ridden street. Several vehicles had been thrown into nearby buildings. A tourist bus lay on its side. Bodies were strewn all over the road. Smoke billowed from the interior of the transit vehicle.

  ‘That bus has still got people in it,’ Chad said.

  ‘I’ll see to it.’ Ebony grabbed Ferdy’s arm. ‘You come with me.’

  Good, I thought. We’ll focus on the robot.

  We raced through the debris toward the enormous metal creature. It had almost reached the mighty hotel. People streamed out the front doors as an alarm drifted distantly through the warm air. It looked like a full-scale evacuation was in progress.

  ‘We need to stop it,’ I said.

  ‘
I’ll get its attention,’ Chad said.

  He drew back his arm and formed a fist. As he punched, we saw an enormous ball of ice form in mid-air and fly directly at the robot. It smashed into the back of its oval head, bringing it to a halt. The robot spun about, its eyes focusing on us.

  ‘I think that worked,’ Dan said.

  Two machine guns jutted out of its mouth.

  ‘Look out!’ I yelled.

  I threw up an air shield as it fired, and the bullets ricocheted harmlessly away from us.

  ‘Split up!’ Chad said.

  That was the last thing I felt like doing, but he raced away before I could reply. Chad not only had the power to control fire and ice, but he also had to ability to be incredibly annoying! And he does it so easily! There were times I would have happily unleashed a metal robot on him myself.

  I cast a helpless glance at Dan, but he shrugged and raced off in the other direction. Great. Instead of organizing a coordinated assault—as we had practiced hundreds of times in training—we were attacking the creature separately.

  Really clever.

  I started forward. Fortunately, the robot was focused on me, firing intermittently in my direction. My shield held. Over the last few months, I’d suffered problems with my powers. My abilities would inexplicably—and usually at the worst times—cut out. Doctor Williams, a scientist back at The Agency, had been examining me without coming to any conclusions. Fortunately, my powers hadn’t failed at a vital time.

  Not lately, anyway.

  I built up a burst of hurricane wind and flung it at the creature, but it barely made a dent. In fact, its only response was to retract the gun barrels. A single, long barrel appeared and pointed directly at me.

  Oh, oh.

  The cannon fired. I had my shield up, but the blast of it still threw me backward. Colliding with a section of broken wall, I hit my head, and my vision shuddered. Whoever built that thing certainly knew how to pack a wallop.

  Clambering to my feet, I built up another concentrated burst of wind. Before I could fire, pieces of metal flew at the robot from a spot in the rubble. From another area came balls of fire. The others had begun their attack.

  The robot responded by swinging its head about and firing back. Chad and Dan were beyond my range of vision; hopefully, they were safely hidden. I started forward again. Firing a blast of wind hadn’t affected the robot. A single, focused gust might be enough to do some damage. Creating a sphere of air the size of a cannonball, I aimed it at the head of the creature. This time it shuddered under the impact.

  Mind you, it shuddered. That doesn’t mean it rolled onto its back and died. Because it didn’t. We continued our attack, but the robot merely retaliated by alternating its fire between the three of us. I caught a glimpse of Chad taking refuge behind a pile of debris. He usually acted as if he could take on the world himself—his ego was the size of a planet—but even he looked worried.

  ‘Chad!’ I yelled. ‘Freeze the leg! The leg!’

  Chad saw me and nodded. He pointed at the leg nearest him, and within seconds it had turned white. This was a new technique we had been practicing. He usually just produced ice. Instead, he’d been training to produce its companion—cold.

  ‘Do it!’ he yelled.

  I fired another blast. Aiming for the leg, this time the limb instantly shattered into thousands of pieces. The robot stumbled. Discus-sized pieces of metal crashed into the other front leg of the creature. I still couldn’t see Dan, but he’d obviously guessed our strategy. Within seconds the second limb collapsed under the robot.

  Still, the monster wasn’t giving up without a fight. Whereas it had relied purely on its weaponry to take us out, now it turned to good old-fashioned brute force. It staggered toward me. I turned to jump out of its way, but one of its legs struck me a glancing blow, and I hit the ground. Raising its leg again, I rolled out of the way just as its claw foot slammed down.

  Crunch!

  The limb lifted again and came crashing down. This time I rolled to the left. It missed me. I had to get up and get away from here, but there was debris all around. I formed a barrier as the leg headed for me.

  I yelled. The claw foot was pushing against my shield. It was three feet from my face. Two feet. Now only inches—

  The robot shuddered and stopped. I heard the sound of an explosion; the leg lifted, and I watched in amazement as the entire creature toppled to one side.

  What happened?

  Dan appeared. ‘Did you see that? I must have hit its control mechanism!’

  ‘That’s good, Dan,’ I said.

  Slowly rising to my feet, I felt a little embarrassed. Dan was the youngest of our group, but it looked like he’d finished off the monster. A row of disks were wedged in the creature’s side. One must have hit a vital system.

  Chad raced over. ‘Did you see that?’ he asked. ‘Frozen one second! Toasted the next! Yet another bad dude brought down by The Chad!’

  The Chad?

  ‘Brought down—’ Dan was speechless. ‘I’m the one who finished it off.’

  ‘You? Don’t be ridiculous, punk. It was me who—’

  This was one argument I wasn’t getting into.

  ‘You both did great,’ I said. ‘Now, we need to find the clown who was operating this thing.’

  It only took a few minutes to discover the rear hatch to the robot. Dan used his metal manipulation abilities to wrench open the doorway. Inside, we found a small man wearing glasses cowering behind his control seat.

  ‘I’m Doctor Robot!’ he screamed. ‘I’m the greatest supervillain the world has ever seen!’

  ‘You’re an idiot,’ I told him. ‘One of many.’

  We dragged him out and handed him over to the police. The officers didn’t bother asking our names. They knew we wouldn’t tell them, and it was a waste of time. I could see the media in the distance. It was best if we got moving.

  We headed in Brodie and Ferdy’s direction. It looked like they’d been busy. The tourist area was a scene of utter chaos. Debris all over the road was making it difficult for emergency service operators to get to all the injured. The fire on the burning bus had been put out, and the passengers evacuated. I caught Ferdy’s eye. He was kneeling next to a man lying in a twisted heap on the street.

  I hurried over to them.

  ‘This man is hurt,’ Ferdy said. ‘He is bleeding.’

  I knelt next to the stranger. He was covered in blood. It looked like Ferdy—or someone—had applied a makeshift bandage to his wound, but blood still flowed freely. The man tried to speak, and I gently took his hand.

  ‘Help is on the way,’ I said. ‘The ambulance officers are almost here.’

  ‘Not…going to make it…not…’ the man tried to speak.

  ‘You’re going to be fine. Just hold on.’

  It was a lie, and I knew it. Within seconds the man’s eyes fluttered, and a single tear ran down his face. He stared up at the sky without comprehension.

  A hollowness opened up within me. At the edges of that hollow feeling lingered hot anger. I didn’t know this man, but he was someone’s son. Maybe he had a wife and family. Now he’d never see his family again because some crazy scientist had gone on a rampage. I arranged the stranger’s hands on his chest and wiped the single tear from his face. The ambulance officers arrived seconds later, but they were too late. Far too late.

  I felt numb as Ferdy and I returned to the Flex Fighter. Drawing near, Ferdy stopped and placed a hand on my shoulder.

  ‘The man died,’ he said.

  ‘Yes. He died.’

  ‘Approximately one hundred and fifty thousand people die each day.’

  I nodded absently. ‘If you say so.’

  ‘You wiped the tear from the man’s face,’ Ferdy said, trying to understand what had happened. ‘You straightened his clothing. You laid his hands on his chest.’

  I looked down at my own hands. They were covered in the stranger’s blood. I’d seen people die before now—I
’d even been the cause of some of their deaths. Still, there was no getting used to seeing a person lose their life.

  ‘The man deserved respect,’ I said. ‘He may have had a wife…a family…’

  ‘But he was dead. He couldn’t know you would wipe the tear from his face. He couldn’t know—’

  ‘Ferdy. How you die has got to be at least as important as how you live. It’s got to mean something.’

  We made our way back to the Flex. Climbing aboard, I wasn’t sure if Ferdy had understood me. No one said anything much as the plane lifted up into the sky. I closed my eyes as we were swept away from the devastation. We arced across the city towards the endless desert.

  Chapter Three

  ‘I heard it got rough out there,’ Agent Palmer said.

  They were the first words she said after we landed. She’d been monitoring the situation via news reports. We’d landed the Flex Fighter in a small cave in a valley out of Las Vegas. From here, a high-speed transporter would return us to the heart of the city.

  ‘It was nothing I couldn’t handle,’ Chad said. ‘I am, after all, a superhero.’

  ‘You are, after all, an idiot,’ Ebony said.

  Chad shook his head in dismay. ‘My own sister mocks me.’

  ‘With good reason.’

  Agent Palmer caught my eye. ‘How are you?’ she asked.

  ‘Okay.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘There was a lot of carnage out there today.’ I couldn’t get the dead man’s face out of my mind. ‘A lot of people got killed.’

  ‘A lot more would have been killed if you hadn’t been there.’ The agent turned to everyone. ‘Well done. Unfortunately, these sorts of crazies seem to be on the increase.’

  She didn’t need to tell us that. Ever since the United Nations had announced that mods were on Earth—and had been for centuries—there seemed to be a new threat every day. It had made me wonder more than once if our existence wouldn’t have been better kept a secret. But it was too late now. The genie, once out, couldn’t be put back into the bottle.