Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7

by Pitt, Darrell

  Ebony explained the rapid sequence of events that had led them to the alien craft. Brodie listened in silence until she finished. ‘That explains a few things,’ she said. ‘Some sort of communications window opened up in here briefly. I saw and spoke to Axel.’

  ‘The Agency is treating him like a criminal,’ Dan said.

  ‘The Tagaar are blackmailing him,’ Brodie said.

  ‘Who are the Tagaar? Is that these aliens?’

  Brodie explained what she knew of them.

  ‘What happened to your face?’ Dan asked.

  Brodie gingerly touched her bruised cheek. ‘The Tagaar love nothing more than to fight,’ she said, gingerly. ‘I’ve fought three times so far.’

  ‘And she has succeeded,’ a voice came from the rear of the darkened cell. ‘She is more of a warrior than any of them.’

  They turned to see two aliens emerge from the shadows.

  ‘This is Zena and Bax,’ Brodie introduced them. ‘They’ve been my companions here.’

  ‘Your friend is strong,’ Zena said. ‘You will need to be strong to defeat the Tagaar.’

  They sat in a circle as Zena related her tale of what had happened to her world. The more Ebony looked at Brodie, the more she saw how battered her friend looked. Finally, she asked Brodie about the fights.

  ‘The Tagaar are tough,’ Brodie said. ‘And they know how to fight.’

  ‘We’ll beat them,’ Dan said. ‘They’re not taking over our planet.’

  ‘It’s unlikely that we will win, friend Dan,’ Ferdy said. ‘The Tagaar appear to have technology far more advanced than any developed on Earth.’

  ‘We can’t just give up,’ Ebony said.

  ‘We will not give up, but the way ahead will be difficult, and our goals will not be achieved without sacrifices.’

  ‘You sound like you can see the future,’ Dan said.

  ‘Ferdy is very smart,’ he said. ‘Ferdy can extrapolate many possible versions of the future. We must wait and see in what direction our path lies.’

  ‘The first thing we need to do is get back to Earth,’ Brodie said.

  ‘There’s about a million Tagaar warriors between us and our ship,’ Dan said.

  ‘Plus, they’ve got their tractor beam,’ Ebony added.

  Brodie turned to Ferdy. ‘Can you work out a way to deflect their tractor beam?’

  ‘Ferdy has been thinking about this,’ he replied. ‘Ferdy has also been thinking about the role of superstring theory when contemplating the—’

  ‘Ferdy,’ Ebony interrupted.

  He nodded. ‘A modulating pulse can be transmitted through the hull that will deflect the Tagaar tractor beam. It has an eighty percent chance of success.’

  ‘What about the other twenty percent?’ Dan asked.

  ‘There is a seventeen percent chance the pulse will fail, and the ship will not escape,’ Ferdy explained. ‘And a three percent chance the ship will explode, killing everyone on board.’

  ‘Always with the good news…’ Brodie murmured.

  ‘I’ve got a plan,’ Dan said.

  ‘What is it?’ Brodie asked.

  ‘It always works in the movies,’ Dan said excitedly. ‘We’ll pretend you’re sick and you need a doctor. When the guards come in, we’ll overpower them and steal their guns.’

  Ferdy crossed to the door. ‘Or we can just knock the door down.’

  He smashed the door with his fist, and it exploded into the hall. The unfortunate guards on the other side were slammed to the ground and did not move. Everyone inside the cell peered into the hallway in amazement.

  ‘Your friend is powerful,’ Zena said.

  ‘As well as intelligent,’ Bax added.

  ‘He doesn’t know his own talents,’ Ebony explained. ‘Come on.’

  As they all poured into the hallway, Brodie and Zena snatched up the weapons of the fallen warriors.

  ‘Which way?’ Ebony asked.

  ‘The shuttle bay is in this direction,’ Ferdy said, pointing.

  They jogged down the corridor. Brodie wondered about their chances of escaping from the ship. Or even surviving this situation. So much had happened so quickly. Then there was the issue with Axel. If he’d stolen a weapon from The Agency, she doubted he’d ever be welcomed back. Most likely, he’d end up in jail—or worse.

  They turned a corner and came face to face with a squad of Tagaar warriors.

  ‘Okay,’ Brodie said. ‘It’s showtime.’

  Chapter Eighteen

  Morgan Le Fay sat at the bow of the small cruiser as it bounced across the waves of the North Sea towards Cargall Island. Once or twice the ship’s pilots had left the safety of the wheelhouse to invite her back to the warm interior.

  ‘Not right now.’ She smiled. ‘I love the sea.’

  They would then nod uncertainly and hurry back inside. Morgan could understand their confusion. It was freezing on the water, and she was dressed in little more than a summer dress. Anyone else would have collapsed from frostbite.

  Of course, she wasn’t anyone else.

  Morgan Le Fay let out a sigh. She was tired of her exile on this backwater planet. She needed to be free, and her alliance with the Tagaar would achieve that goal.

  The Tagaar are stupid, she thought. But they are powerful.

  If there were one thing that had surprised Morgan over the centuries, it was the relative ease with which stupid people often gained power. She’d met Oliver Cromwell once, and he’d said something that had stayed with her ever since.

  ‘Power belongs to those who are prepared to take it,’ he said.

  The Tagaar were stupid, but they saw the Earth as an opportunity, and they were prepared to take it. She needed them. So be it. She’d known the Tagaar would come to Earth sooner or later. Now that time had arrived, and she now felt an emotion as foreign to her as the day of her birth.

  Fear.

  She knew when to abandon ship, and that time was now. The Earth was finished. Certainly, she’d still enjoy a few more years of murdering innocent people, but the Tagaar would slowly increase their stranglehold on the planet. Sooner or later, the human race would be reduced to slaves, and for Morgan Le Fay, it was a fate to which she wouldn’t yield.

  The south coast of Cargall Island was growing larger by the moment. They would reach it within the hour. She strode back along the deck to the wheelhouse where the two men were huddled inside. They looked at her in amazement as she stepped inside from the freezing cold.

  ‘Are ye not frozen, madam?’ the captain asked.

  She gave both men a smile. What are their names? She’d gotten terribly forgetful of late. There had been so many people over the centuries. After a while, they all blended together into one feast with so many different courses.

  Ah yes.

  Seamus the captain, and his brother Donald.

  AKA dinner and dessert!

  ‘It is cold,’ Morgan agreed. ‘Do you go to the island often?’

  ‘Only to drop off supplies,’ Donald said. He was slouched up against the opposite wall, his thumbs hitched into his faded blue jeans. His eyes were firmly fixed on Morgan’s body. ‘The scientists are always getting new pieces of equipment for their contraption out there.’

  ‘The Solar Accelerator,’ Morgan said. ‘A fascinating device.’

  ‘If you say so,’ Donald said.

  Captain Seamus shot a warning look at his brother before focusing on Morgan. ‘And what takes you to Cargall Island?’

  ‘I have an interest in particle physics,’ Morgan said.

  ‘Really?’ The captain looked as if such a thing were ridiculous. ‘It’s hard to believe that a…well…a…’

  ‘A woman would be interested in such things?’ Morgan asked.

  Seamus felt distinctly uncomfortable and kept his focus resolutely ahead. They were almost at the island now. Like his brother, he found the woman attractive. Unlike his brother, he also thought her dangerous. Who in their right mind would remain at the bow of the s
hip in sub-zero temperatures? It was insane. Yet the woman seemed perfectly contented with standing in their wheel room in a dripping wet dress. It was nothing short of…bizarre.

  They arrived at the small jetty that jutted out into the cove on the east side of the island. Donald went up to the bow and tied the small boat to one of the mooring stumps. Morgan turned to the captain.

  ‘Will you be so kind as to come up to the dock?’ she asked.

  The captain looked puzzled but nodded. They hadn’t been paid yet. He followed her up onto the jetty. Donald joined them. The weather had worsened, and the rain was now falling harder than ever. Morgan seemed not to notice it at all. The men looked at her expectantly.

  ‘There’s the matter of payment,’ Seamus said.

  ‘Of course,’ Morgan replied. ‘At first, I thought I would consume both of you, but I’ve since decided you’re both too disgusting.’

  Seamus stared at her dumbly. He’d been right. The woman is mad. He opened his mouth to reply but found he couldn’t make a sound. Nor could he move a muscle. He glanced across at Donald. His brother was in a similar predicament. A low cry of terror emanated from deep within his throat but was quickly swept away by the wind.

  ‘You men are very dirty,’ Morgan said. ‘A dip will do you both the world of good.’

  Both men walked stiff-legged to the edge of the jetty.

  ‘Swim to the bottom,’ Morgan told them. ‘And don’t come back.’

  The men dove into the water. They disappeared from view within seconds, but Morgan remained on the edge of the jetty for several minutes, imagining the terror of the men as they clung to the rocky bottom of the cove until they drowned.

  Only then did she start up the path to the town.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The three Russian mods advanced on me. I didn’t want to fight them. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I only wanted to get on with my mission.

  But none of that was possible.

  The one in the blue outfit said something in Russian to me. I did my best to look dazed—which was easy under the circumstances—and took a deep breath. I focused and created a small breeze. At first, the branches swayed slightly in the early morning air. Then it built up rapidly. I opened my eyes to see Red looking up at the trees in confusion.

  Now, I thought. Now!

  The hurricane hit with full ferocity. I kept myself and Chad at the heart of the storm as it swept around us. Red fired another bolt of electricity, but it went wild. Blue gave a single wave of his arms before he was lifted off his feet. He flew past us like something out of the Wizard of Oz as trees were ripped out by the roots.

  Chad slowly lifted his head. ‘What hit me?’

  ‘Some guy in a red suit.’

  ‘Who? Santa Claus?’

  ‘I don’t think so. Anyway, he and his friends are out of the picture.’

  Chad climbed to his feet as I brought the wind under control. Within seconds there was silence, but all around us lay the devastated forest. There was no sign of the Russians. I doubted the storm had killed them, but it had probably left them incapacitated.

  Checking the compass, I put us in the right direction again. We hurried past a farmhouse and followed a road into a small village. An old man stuck his head out from the upper window of a homestead and disappeared again just as quickly.

  ‘We need to lay low,’ I said.

  ‘You need to lay low. I’m just a tourist.’

  ‘Fine.’

  ‘No need to be snappy.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘I was just wondering how you intend to get close to the President.’

  It was a good question. Studying the compass, it appeared the Russian President was about a mile south of our position. He was probably visiting the area on a re-election tour. I remembered seeing references to the upcoming ballot on television. Flight was out of the question. The Russian Defense Force was probably watching the skies. This was looking worse by the moment. My eyes settled on a manhole cover in the ground.

  ‘That’s how we’ll do it,’ I said.

  ‘How’s that?’

  Crossing to the manhole cover, I lifted it with a gust of air. A ladder led down into darkness, but I could vaguely make out a tunnel leading in the right direction. I turned to Chad.

  ‘Do you have a torch?’

  He produced a flame at the end of his finger.

  ‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Stupid question.’

  We descended the ladder, dragging the cover back over behind us. This was a storm drain. Fortunately, it hadn’t rained for a while; only a thin line of water ran down the center of the circular channel. I rechecked the compass as we headed down the tunnel. Silence closed in around us. The world above was only a few feet away, yet it might as well have been miles. The quiet was unnerving. The only sound was that of our steps in the passageway. Occasionally our feet would splash in the thin trail of water, and it sounded like the breaking of glass.

  We didn’t speak. I wondered what was going through Chad’s mind. A few days ago, our lives had seemed set in stone. We were working for The Agency. We had a place to live and food to eat. Now I’d thrown all that away. At least Chad still had his life. He could go home. To stay with me was craziness.

  ‘It looks like this tunnel will take us right into the center of the town,’ I said. ‘You should leave once we reach the surface.’

  ‘How do you work that out?’ Chad’s voice reverberated around the interior of the tunnel. ‘Do you think you can take on the entire Russian army yourself?’

  ‘This isn’t your fight.’

  ‘Brodie’s in trouble,’ he replied. ‘That makes it my fight.’

  ‘But when I use the weapon—’

  ‘I know.’ He sounded angry. ‘It’s a fate worse than death. I get that. I disagree with how you’ve handled this whole—’

  ‘I know I—’

  ‘You should have trusted us. We could have worked together to save Brodie.’

  ‘Her life is at stake,’ I said. ‘I’m in love with her.’

  That shut him up for a moment. ‘You don’t show it,’ he finally said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Half the time, you ignore her,’ he said. ‘And then you spend all that time with Ebony.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘You heard me,’ he said. ‘You spend more time with Ebony than with Brodie.’

  I was about to protest, but there was some truth in what he was saying. If I were in love with Brodie, I had a funny way of showing it. It wasn’t that I had those sorts of feelings for Ebony. She was a friend. That was all. So was I really in love with Brodie or was I—

  A sound came from the tunnel behind us. I threw up a shield—and not a moment too soon. A shape raced towards us. It was Blue. He hit my shield, and the barrier held—but only just. He started pounding the shield so hard I thought he was about to break through. Even Chad looked scared.

  ‘Keep moving!’ I yelled.

  We backed up the tunnel away from him. Chad threw up a wall of ice several feet thick, and we made a dash for it. As we reached a bend in the passageway, I glanced back to see the icy wall being demolished.

  Blue came charging at us again.

  We sprinted down the tunnel with him in pursuit. He was gaining on us. This tunnel was turning out to be a bad idea. It was too confining. To make matters worse, I didn’t want to harm Blue or the other mods. They were just doing their job.

  I heard an explosion from behind me.

  ‘That should stop him,’ Chad said.

  I turned to see a wall of fire behind us. Chad had formed it to stop Blue from pursuing us. At least it would—

  Blue crashed straight through it as if it weren’t there and slammed into Chad. Hard. Chad gave a grunt of pain as he hit the ground. I threw a cannonball of air at Blue, but it didn’t slow him down. What was this guy? Indestructible? The man continued toward me, and I put up another invisible barrier. This slowed him down, but not much. He continued s
training to reach me. Pounding the invisible barrier, he reminded me of some sort of enraged gorilla.

  Chad somehow got to his feet and threw more ice at Blue, but this time he embedded the Russian inside. The problem now was that Chad couldn’t join me; the block of man separated us.

  ‘Keep going!’ Chad yelled.

  ‘I can’t leave you behind!’ I said.

  ‘You’ve got to,’ he said. ‘For Brodie.’

  There was no time to argue. Chad was right. The longer I stayed here, the lesser the chance of achieving my mission. I ran down the corridor. Within minutes I located a ladder to the surface. Just before I started to climb, I heard the sound of crashing ice.

  Chad was on his own.

  Chapter Twenty

  We’re not going to make it, Brodie thought.

  They had headed in the direction of the landing bay and already encountered two groups of Tagaar warriors. Since gaining her superpowers, Brodie had faced some tricky opponents, but none were as formidable as the Tagaar. She’d been forced to beat a number into unconsciousness during her one-on-one fights. Now she and the others faced the same sort of opposition as they struggled to reach the landing bay.

  Must be their thick skulls. They don’t know when to stop.

  They rounded the corner and came face to face with another group of warriors. Ferdy had ripped an enormous piece of metal from the hull and now used it as a shield. They took refuge behind it as the Tagaar group fired and advanced. Finally, they came face to face with the warriors, and the aliens breached the shield and engaged in hand to hand combat. As Brodie fought one of the warriors, she saw all her friends—except Ferdy—engaged in similar battles. Ferdy simply stood by and watched the mayhem taking place around him.

  Dan and Ebony used their combined powers to bring down one warrior. Zena and Bax took on a warrior each. Within seconds the Tagaar were defeated. Brodie and the others continued down the corridor, turned a corner—and were faced with another group of warriors.

  ‘Are they making these things out of Lego?’ Dan asked. ‘There’s so many of them.’

  ‘How far are we from the shuttle bay?’ Ebony asked.