by Alesha Dixon
The Bright Sparks wore expressions of determination as they ran towards us across the roof and their arrival brought back all the courage I’d momentarily lost. I didn’t feel weak or dizzy any more. Together, there was no way we were going to let Darek Vermore win.
The Bright Sparks made me feel brave again.
As Darek’s team were all focused on my friends running towards them, they were distracted from me and from the Light of the World. The man holding the briefcase out for Darek hadn’t snapped it shut again and the precious stone was fully out on display, connecting with and strengthening my superpowers. I decided not to fight it.
It took just a moment of concentration for dazzling light beams to explode from my palms, taking everyone on the rooftop by surprise. The man behind me was sent stumbling backwards from the energy force, releasing my arms; the other holding the briefcase jumped in horror away from me as the light burst right up at him; and Darek dropped my wrist and cried out as though the light powers flowing through my arms had somehow burnt his fingers.
It was the perfect distraction.
Darek quickly grabbed the briefcase that had been dropped and clutched it tightly to him, ducking behind his security men. As the bodyguard next to me struggled to his feet, blinking madly after the sudden burst of light, Kizzy swung her French culture encyclopaedia through the air with tremendous force, whacking him over the head and sending him flying. The other bodyguard ran at her furiously and she let out a war cry as she swiftly dodged his outstretched arms. She swung the book at the back of his head as he flew past her, taking him down, too.
“Good hit!” cheered Aunt Lucinda.
“See, Suzie?” Kizzy yelled triumphantly, holding the book at the ready again. “Told you this would come in handy!”
“GET THEM!” Mr Vermore roared at the rest of his men. “GET THEM! GET THEM!”
His security team did as they were told, leaping into action, but the Bright Sparks were ready. One of the men who had been standing guard over Alexis left him and ran full-pelt in Suzie’s direction.
“Suzie, watch out!” Fred cried.
Suzie calmly took her beret off and placed it on the nearest table before taking a deep breath and running straight at the man coming towards her. There was a moment of confusion on the bodyguard’s face before Suzie launched herself into the air, screaming “KIAI!” at the top of her lungs and performing a perfect flying kick.
Her foot connected with the middle of his chest and he went soaring backwards to the ground with a loud “Ooof!” as the wind was knocked clean out of him.
“A hundred points!” Georgie cried in excitement. “GO, SUZIE!”
As Georgie cheered Suzie on, I spotted the other security man who’d been watching over Alexis heading straight for her. I was about to shout in warning but there was no need.
Pink light beams burst from Aunt Lucinda’s outstretched hands, and the sudden wave of their energy forced him to come to a sudden stop, shielding his eyes fearfully from the blinding flash of light.
It gave Georgie enough time to realize what was going on.
She saw him behind her and reached down to her feet. She pulled off her thick-heeled boot and hurled it at him, hitting him square in the jaw. He held his face in pain before she came at him with her other boot, thumping him in the forehead. As he tumbled to the ground, she whipped out some beautiful, patterned silk scarves from her bag and tied his feet and hands together before he knew what was going on.
“Thank you, Hermès.” She grinned, before turning to look up at Aunt Lucinda, gesturing at her boots and scarves. “It’s so important to accessorize.”
“Totally,” Aunt Lucinda replied, pink sparks still flying from her fingers.
I was suddenly grabbed from behind by someone who held me in a tight lock.
“You and your friends won’t win this one,” Darek growled, as I tried to get out of his grip. He turned to the last security man standing. “STOP THEM!”
Looking a tad nervous considering the fate of his friends, the bodyguard gulped and then lifted his fists and lunged towards Fred. But Fred had been waiting for this moment since the Bright Sparks had burst on to the roof and he wasn’t going to let the rest of them have all the fun. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a long string of garlic he must have bought in Paris.
Swinging the string of garlic around his head like a lasso, he narrowed his eyes at the security man, taking aim before launching it into the air. It hurtled at speed towards the bodyguard, whose eyes widened in panic as the string of garlic hit him forcefully in the throat, winding itself round his neck and knocking him off balance.
“YES!” Fred exclaimed. “What a strike!”
But the guard hadn’t given up. He leapt to his feet, the garlic string dangling around his neck, and darted towards Fred in fury, tackling him to the ground.
“Get. Off. Me!” Fred cried, struggling as the guard pinned his arms down.
Suddenly, the man was struck by a force so strong, it knocked him completely off Fred. He lay in a dazed state. When his vision cleared, he was able to make out an irate pirate ostrich peering down at him.
“Well done, darling!” Aunt Lucinda cheered, clapping loudly. “And do feel free to sit on him for good measure!”
The bodyguard had a split second to yell out in protest before Alfred’s big feathered bottom plonked heavily down on to his chest.
“Let her go, Darek!” Kizzy yelled, as they all turned to look at us.
Vermore shook his head, wrenching my arms so tightly behind my back that I yelped.
“You’re on your own, now,” Suzie said, gesturing to his team scattered about the roof, all of them groaning in pain.
“She’s right,” Aunt Lucinda told him. “You can’t win on your own.”
“Yes, I can!” he shouted defiantly.
He reached to the briefcase next to him on the nearest table, punched in the codes and the lid popped open again, revealing the Light of the World.
I felt the tingles rocket through my arms at being so close to the precious stone and as Darek gripped the Light of the World in his fingers, pulling it out from its setting, I began to panic which made me lose all control of my powers. Beams of light burst from my palms but Darek was prepared this time, dodging them and refusing to lose his grip. My beams were joined by Aunt Lucinda’s pink ones, which flew towards Darek forcefully, but he squinted through the energy blasts in fierce determination.
This was it. Darek was going to win. He was going to take my powers away from me and transfer them to himself.
“NO!” I heard someone cry as blood rushed through my ears and my vision blurred.
I felt something cold press into my left hand and then Darek’s hands closed tightly around mine, holding me up as I let my legs buckle beneath me.
It was over.
19
I felt as though my heart had stopped.
I wondered what it would feel like to have no superpowers. I wondered what was going to happen now that they had been transferred to someone as unhinged as Darek Vermore. I wondered what he was going to do and how on earth we were going to stop him now. I wondered how I’d explain to Mum how badly I’d let the Beam family down.
And then … I realized I’d had a LOT of time to be wondering all these things.
Kneeling on the ground, I looked up at Darek towering over me, gripping my left hand. His eyes were filled with panic. I didn’t feel different. He didn’t look different. Hang on.
Nothing was happening.
He pressed the stone harder into my palm with his hand and blinked up at the sun, waiting for a sign that the powers were transferring through to him.
“NO!” he shouted frantically. “No! Why isn’t this working?”
“Lightning Girl!” I suddenly heard a familiar voice yell from the other side of the rooftop. “Use your other hand!”
It hit me what they were talking about. Darek was so focused on my left hand, that my right hand had bee
n left free as I’d crumpled to the ground. I lifted my right palm and, holding it right in front of him, I summoned my light beams with all the energy I had left, which wasn’t too hard in the end, considering I was literally touching the source of all my powers. A focused stream of light and all the force that came with it blasted out from my hand like a lightning bolt into his face, sending him tumbling backwards.
I scrambled to my feet as Nanny Beam appeared at my side.
I grinned, my face buried in her bright pink hair as she held me tightly to her. “I thought that was your voice.”
“Sorry I’m a tad late,” she whispered, before pulling back and beaming at me. “Are you all right, Lightning Girl?”
“I am now,” I said, watching what seemed like hundreds of agents appear from nowhere and swarm the rooftop with military precision.
Nanny Beam’s expression darkened as her eyes moved from me to her nephew.
“Hello, Darek,” she said, in a terrifying tone that sent a shiver down my spine.
I would not like to be Darek right now.
The agents surrounding him had picked him up from the ground and were holding him with his hands already tied behind his back.
“I see that I’ve been grossly wrong about you,” she continued.
“Alexis tricked me,” he spat in a frenzy. “I had the stone! I had Aurora! I had NATURAL LIGHT! Why didn’t it work?”
“Trust me, Darek,” Nanny Beam said. “I will make certain that you are the last person in the world to ever know the answer to that question.” She nodded at her agents holding him.
“Take him out of my sight.”
As they led him off the rooftop, he yelled over his shoulder, “You won’t get away with this, Beams! It’s not over yet!”
Nanny Beam turned to me and her eyes flickered to my left hand.
“Do you mind?” she said gently, holding out her palm.
“Oh!” I said, suddenly realizing what she meant. I held out the Light of the World for her. I had completely forgotten I was holding it all this time.
She took it from me gently and placed it back in the briefcase before safely shutting the lid.
The tingling feeling in my arms and hands immediately fizzled away and I felt in control again, although I wished I’d held it for that bit longer. It really was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Seeing the Light of the World in all its glory kind of made Dad’s obsession with rocks and stones and stuff a little bit more understandable.
A little bit.
Before I could say anything else to Nanny Beam, I was suddenly pulled into the tightest hug I had ever found myself in and my face was so firmly nestled into their shoulder, I couldn’t even work out who it was until I pulled away and saw Alexis beaming down at me.
“Aurora, you’re OK,” he said, hugging me again. “I’m so sorry! I messed up everything. It was all my fault.”
“You didn’t mess up,” I said firmly, hugging him back. “He fooled everyone. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he said, waving my question away. “I just feel so stupid. I can’t believe I was the one to give him that book.”
“Aurora’s right,” Nanny Beam said, placing a comforting arm on his shoulder. “He tricked all of us, even MI5.” She shook her head. “Even me.”
“I’m sorry all the same. I should have checked with you, Nanny Beam, when he first asked me to work on the project.” He looked sheepishly at me. “And I shouldn’t have stolen the book from your room and given it straight to him. I wanted to impress him so badly, I ended up giving the bad guy the answer to everything.”
“To be fair, I stole from my family, too,” I admitted in an attempt to make him feel better. “I stole the book from Dad in the first place. So that wasn’t a great start.”
“And you didn’t give the bad guy the answer to everything.” Nanny Beam grinned, patting the briefcase. “It didn’t work. Aurora’s still here, powers intact, and the Light of the World is safe again. Darek Vermore will be locked up for the rest of time.”
“Yeah,” Alexis nodded, his forehead furrowed in confusion. “I wonder why it didn’t work. He followed the book’s instructions perfectly. It must all be folk-tale gibberish after all.”
“Folk-tales are never just gibberish,” Nanny Beam corrected sternly before calling over one of her agents. “Now, Alexis, I want you to go with Agent Holden here who is going to take you to the paramedics waiting downstairs to check if you’re all right.”
“I’m fine,” he said, frowning. “Aurora is the one who—”
“Alexis,” Nanny Beam said in her sternest grandmother tone. “It’s just to be sure. You’ve been through a lot today. I’ll be sending Aurora to the paramedics as well, as soon as I’ve taken down some more details of what happened here. Now, off you go.”
Alexis knew he couldn’t argue with her, so he gave me one last hug.
“Aurora, I want you to know that, even after all this, you’re still a loser,” he said over his shoulder as Agent Holden led him away to the rooftop door. “But an awesome one.”
I laughed as I watched him go. “Thanks, Alexis.”
The Bright Sparks were huddled together with Aunt Lucinda and Alfred, surrounded by a team of agents, who were running through questions and checking they were all right.
I was desperate to go over to them, but Nanny Beam held me back a moment longer.
“Before you join your friends, I wanted to apologize myself for putting you in danger. I should have suspected Darek, but I so wanted to believe…”
Her sentence trailed off as she searched for the words.
“That he wasn’t like his dad?” I suggested. She nodded sadly. “It’s like you told Alexis, he tricked all of us. This isn’t your fault; you couldn’t have known. I think what you did for him was amazing. He told me about … about your brother and what happened. With the Jewel of Truth and Nobility.”
“Did he?” She let out a long sigh. “It was tragic. We got the stone back to its rightful guardian at least, and I’m pleased I never told Darek where it was. So, that’s something. There was good in Nolan, I know. He just got” – she shrugged – “lost in it all. Consumed by jealousy. I suppose his son was out for revenge all this time. I really thought I’d got through to him.”
I took her hand in mine.
“You’ve got us.”
My grandmother smiled. “Yes. Yes, I do. I’m very proud of you, Aurora. Now, I’ve got to make an important phone call, so you can go on and thank your friends for rescuing you.”
“Nanny Beam,” I said hurriedly, as she reached for her phone, “can I ask you something?”
“Go on.”
“Darek said that I… Well, he thought I might be the chosen guardian of the Light of the World.”
“Yes,” she said gently, lifting my left hand and admiring the swirled scar. “I think he may be right. It certainly explains a few things, especially why your powers showed themselves so early in your lifetime. The stone knew danger was coming and so a new guardian was chosen. You.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “But then why didn’t it work? The power transfer. If the rest of what that book says about the precious stones is right?”
She looked thoughtful for a moment.
“I’m not entirely sure about any of this, Aurora, but if I had to guess, I’d say that he had the right stone and the right guardian, but the wrong light, perhaps.”
“What do you mean? The book said, ‘natural light’. That’s got to mean sunshine.”
“Does it?” She tilted her head at me. “What about the natural light for the stone itself? The Light of the World wasn’t found by our ancestor Dawn Beam all those centuries ago in London. It was found—”
“—under the Northern Lights,” I finished, looking up at her in wonder. “The Aurora Borealis.”
“Go join your friends,” she said, nodding at the Bright Sparks. She pressed one of the options on her speed dial and turned to walk away from me
, greeting someone who sounded like an old friend on the phone.
“Oh, I see how it is,” Suzie huffed as I pelted towards my friends and the agents stepped aside to let me give them all a big group hug. “Leave us till last. Don’t mind us, we just came ALL the way from Paris to be here to save your Lightning butt, only for you to yabber on with your grandmother for half an hour before saying hello.”
“Hello, Suzie.” I grinned, throwing my arm around her.
She smiled and patted me on the back. “Whatever. Are you OK?”
“Yes, thanks to all of you. I can’t believe you left Paris to come here! What happened?”
“There wasn’t any option,” Kizzy said firmly. “The Bright Sparks are family and it was like you said when you jumped in that taxi: family comes first. It just took us a few minutes to get another taxi after you zoomed off and then we missed the train you were on and had to wait ages for the next one.”
My eyes filled with grateful tears. “I can’t believe you did that for me.”
“Aunt Lucinda got us here in double-time when we reached the UK though,” Georgie explained. “We called her and told her you and Alexis were in a spot of bother. She didn’t hesitate to come and get us in the car and fly us to London.”
“Although things got a bit hairy when Alfred took the wheel,” Kizzy pointed out, giving Aunt Lucinda a stern look.
“Alfred is a splendid driver,” Aunt Lucinda retorted indignantly, before adding quietly, “for an ostrich.”
Alfred wasn’t listening. He was busy trying to steal an expensive-looking watch from the wrist of a secret service agent.
“And the pirate hat?” I asked curiously.
“We were enjoying a luxurious Thames cruise when they called,” Aunt Lucinda explained. “You know how he likes to get into character.”
“Well, I’ve never been so happy to see you,” I said. “You were all amazing. I can’t believe you got up here in time and you took down all of Darek’s security team!”
“We’d had some practice, thanks to our Natural History Museum outing,” Fred beamed, lifting a Vermore Enterprises key card out of his pocket. “Nabbed this from the guy on reception. Got us through all the doors in this” – he glanced around him – “weird banana-shaped building.”
