by Greg James
Still several metres up but falling fast, he caught Rain Shadow firmly around the waist. ‘Murph!’ he shouted desperately. ‘I need something soft!’
‘What?’ said Murph.
‘Something SOFT!’ yelled the plummeting Billy desperately as the pavement rushed up terrifyingly towards him. ‘Anything!’
Murph’s hands scrabbled at the utility belt’s pouches. ‘Here!’ he shouted, pulling something out and throwing it across the ground, tumbling over and over as it came to rest beneath Nellie’s falling figure.
Billy couldn’t make out what Murph had chucked, but he unleashed his power on it in total desperation. There was a doughy, balloonish noise and the object inf lated, just in time for Billy and Nellie to land on it with a huge squelch. She rolled clear, licking her fingers. ‘Blueberry!’ she exclaimed as she came to a halt next to Murph.
‘A muffin?’ sputtered Billy. ‘You put a muffin in your utility belt?’
‘You never know when you might want a muffin,’ said Murph defensively. Billy, unable to counter this logic, merely shrugged.
Mega Knox now looked as if it was struggling against invisible bonds. More and more lightning bolts were hitting it, and the colours in its skin began to fluoresce, as though lit from within. It howled at the clouds as more and more energy poured in, almost as if nature itself were taking revenge on the creature that had attempted to violate its laws.
For a moment, the entire gigantic figure lit up the sky as it glowed – they had to shield their eyes from the piercing brightness. And then there was a huge, deep crash as if someone had struck an indescribably enormous gong.
Mega Knox dissolved into flakes of ash, whirled here and there by the eddying winds and swiftly dispersing until, within seconds, there was no trace left of it whatsoever.
Hilda, red-eyed, watched the black flakes swirl in the air, until a pull at her sleeve distracted her. Epona, now his normal tiny size once again, was tugging at her with his teeth. Tossing his mane, he led her to a pile of rubble that was shifting and pulsing. Gasping with joy, Hilda scrabbled the stones to one side, and Artax emerged, sneezing and shaking the dust from his mane.
‘All horses accounted for?’ asked Murph, grinning from ear to ear.
‘All horses accounted for!’ replied Hilda, wiping her face with the palm of her hand.
‘All Zeroes accounted for!’ came a voice from above them. Murph turned his face to the sky, his grin growing wider still.
‘All friends accounted for,’ he confirmed, as Mary gently floated down to join him, illuminated by the first, faint rays of dawn peering through a sudden gap in the ragged, breaking black clouds.
24
A New Alliance
The problem with saving the world is that everyone immediately wants to hear all about it. Just when you feel like a nice sit-down and some quiet time, there’s always a crowd of people asking questions at the rate of about seventeen a minute.
‘Kid Normal! Kid Normal!
‘How did you defeat Knox?’
‘How did you stop his mind control?’
‘What will happen to the Heroes now?’
‘Is that your girlfriend?’
Murph and the rest of the Super Zeroes, battle-buffeted, bruised and befuddled, had rejoined the army and Heroes who had worked together to neutralise the Rogues. Most of Knox’s cohorts had been recaptured – Murph could hear a few shouts and crashes from the park as the stragglers were rounded up. As for Nicholas Knox himself, Mr Souperman was now holding him in a firm – indeed, literally a super-strong – headlock. Just behind the military cordon was a huge bank of TV cameras and reporters, and they all wanted to know what had happened.
‘What turned Knox into a monster?’
‘How did the Heroes escape from prison?’
‘What’s your superpower?’
‘Is that your girlfriend?’
‘Who keeps asking that?’ said Mary irritably. ‘Honestly, you’d think they had more important things to write headlines about.’
Murph’s mum held up a hand for silence. ‘Please, please,’ she implored the reporters, and gradually the hubbub subsided. ‘These brave, brave Heroes have spent the last few weeks with the whole country hating them and calling them freaks,’ she told the crowd. ‘Now they’ve saved you all from that monster, I think they deserve a bit of peace and quiet, don’t you?’
There was a fresh outburst of frantic shouting and questioning. ‘Just a few words from Kid Normal!’ one reporter was shouting. ‘Please!’
Murph stepped forward. ‘OK,’ he said simply, sighing. ‘What do you want to know?’
Once again the reporters all shouted at once. Murph hushed them with an upraised hand. ‘You.’ He indicated the reporter who had asked him to speak. ‘What do you want to know?’
The man seemed taken aback for a moment, then he rallied. ‘We’ve been told for months now by Nicholas Knox that Heroes are evil and sinister,’ he told them. ‘The mind control’s been broken … so now tell us the truth. What are Heroes?’
Murph pondered this for a long time. What did make a Hero? He cleared his throat, and the reporters craned forward.
Oddly, and perhaps for the first time in history, the journalist had in fact asked exactly the right question. It was a question that it had taken Murph Cooper almost two years to answer, and he was fairly sure that he was the only person in the world who had the experience to solve it.
What made a Hero? He caught sight of Mr Flash out of the corner of his eye, beaming at him with pride. The teacher may have changed his opinion now, but Murph knew what his answer to the question would have been when they had first met. A Hero was made by his or her Capability. It had to be a useful one – speed or strength, preferably. But speed and strength hadn’t saved The School.
Murph thought more as he looked around at the other members of the Heroes’ Alliance. They had always believed that Heroes had to operate in the shadows, keeping their secrets. But secrecy hadn’t defeated Nektar, or Magpie.
What makes a Hero? thought Kid Normal to himself. He knew the answer now, but it was hard to put into words.
‘Listen,’ he told the crowd. ‘It’s not about the power you have … or wearing a costume … or being part of some secret organisation. Heroes are … I mean, there are Heroes everywhere.’
‘What do you mean, “everywhere”?’ asked a different reporter, scribbling in a notebook.
‘You … you walk past them in the street every day,’ Murph continued. ‘You read about them in the papers. You hear about them on the news.’
‘But we’ve never put Heroes in the paper,’ protested someone else. ‘We never knew about them.’
‘Yes – for a long time, Heroes worked in secret,’ Kid Normal confirmed, gesturing behind him to where a plume of smoke was still rising from the battleground where they had defeated Knox. ‘But something happened to change that. I was part of that change, because … I discovered the Heroes’ greatest secret.’
‘And what’s the secret?’ asked the first reporter. ‘What is it?’
‘I suppose I only really realised it today,’ Murph told him, ‘but it finally clicked. Being a Hero isn’t about having a power. Or a costume, or … or a codename, or anything like that. Being a Hero is something you choose.’
‘But your group’s all got superpowers!’ protested the reporter. ‘Easy to say that when you’re surrounded by friends who can fly, or whatever.’
‘My friends do have incredible powers,’ Murph agreed. ‘Some of the most incredible in the world. Take Mary, for instance …’
She stepped forward, blushing.
‘Mary has an amazing power,’ said Murph.
‘Yeah, she can fly!’
‘Not what I was talking about,’ said Murph. ‘She’s brave. She never leaves a friend behind. She’s always been honest with her friends. And, as we’ve discovered this week, she is simply irreplaceable.’
Mary rarely blushed, but she made up for several months of non-blushing at
this point with a truly world-class display.
‘That’s totally his girlfriend,’ said the reporter who kept asking.
‘Shut up,’ Murph explained to him.
‘And that’s what makes her a Hero,’ said Hilda excitedly, cottoning on.
‘Right!’ confirmed Murph, turning to face her. ‘Hilda, your horses don’t make you a Hero, though they are undoubtedly awesome.’
‘They are awesome,’ admitted Hilda.
‘Your determination makes you a Hero,’ said Murph. ‘And your bravery, Billy.’
‘But I’m the least brave person in the whole team!’ Billy protested.
‘You worry the most,’ Murph corrected, ‘but you still stood up to Nektar, and to Magpie, and to Knox. That makes you the bravest of all of us.’
‘Never thought of it like that,’ said Billy, modestly shuffling his feet, one of which was now three times the size of the other.
‘And Nellie,’ said Murph finally, putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘Our pilot, our engineer, the heart of the Super Zeroes. Where would any of us be without you?’
‘And of course there’s Kid Normal himself,’ said a voice. ‘The leader of this team of Heroes, the one who united them, and the one who keeps them together. The biggest Hero of all. And the only one with no superpower whatsoever.’
Murph’s mum had walked across to stand in front of the reporters.
‘I only found out about these Heroes a few months ago,’ she told them. ‘And at first I was worried. After all … secret societies? Sounds kinda creepy, doesn’t it? But since Knox seized power, I’ve realised why the Heroes had to work in secret. We just weren’t ready to accept them. But now something’s changed. And the thing that’s changed is the arrival of Kid Normal.’
Murph could feel every eye fixed on him, from the reporters and TV crews in front of them to the ranks of Heroes away to one side.
‘First he showed the Heroes’ Alliance that you could be a Hero without a Capability,’ Murph’s mum went on. ‘And now he’s shown the rest of us the same thing. So I’m proposing a new Alliance. Not a secret one. One that we can all share in together.
Because anybody can choose to be a Hero. It’s not the power you’re born with – it’s the determination to fight without fear and to save without thanks.’
There was a moment of silence, then someone began to applaud. Murph craned his neck to see who it was, and was astonished to see Mr Flash bashing his beefy hands together, tears streaming down his face. ‘TAUGHT HIM EVERYTHING I KNOW, I DID,’ he heard him say to the person next to him. ‘ALWAYS KNEW HE’D COME GOOD …’
But the rest of his words were drowned out as, one by one, the other members of the crowd began to applaud too. Soon the noise was deafening. Murph and the rest of the Final Five joined hands, raising them to the sky and dipping down into a bow. The din intensified, with whoops and cheers swelling the sound.
A flash of blue caught Murph’s attention, and he turned his head slightly. Just beside them, amongst the crowd of Heroes, were Flora, Carl and Angel. Murph let go of Mary’s hand for a moment to drag his three friends into the line-up. ‘After all, you’re Super Zeroes too, really. Where would we be without you?’ he muttered to Carl, who seemed to have something in his eye and was dabbing his face with the sleeve of his overalls.
‘I know there’s lots to discuss,’ said Murph’s mum in his ear. ‘But I think it might be an idea if you lot got yourselves home. I’ll meet you there later, OK? Chinese takeaway?’
‘Celebratory saving-the-world pancake rolls?!’ asked Murph.
‘Absolutely,’ Katie said. ‘And extra “your brother’s no longer brainwashed” prawn crackers.’
‘Andy’s OK, then?’ said Murph, a lump in his throat.
‘He’s fine,’ she confirmed. ‘Your dad’s driving him up later. We’ll have plenty of time to fill him in … as a family.’
‘See you there,’ replied Kid Normal. His mum grabbed him suddenly and planted a kiss on his head before turning back to the crowd, reporters already bombarding her with questions and flashbulbs.
‘Your mum’s going to end up Prime Minister or something,’ said Billy as they snuck away to locate the Banshee in the palace grounds.
‘Sounds like an adventure,’ grinned Murph as the applause faded into the distance behind them.
25
And Then …
So, what happened next?
Did Murph’s mum really become Prime Minister? What happened to the New Alliance? Had Kid Normal and his friends started a second Golden Age of Heroes? Or did a new enemy suddenly arise, one more dangerous than even Nicholas Knox?
If you find out, be sure to let us know, won’t you?
Because adventures never end. But books do. And take a look in your right hand. We’re almost out of time here.
The Banshee’s hovering above the palace gardens, the air beneath it rippling in the heat haze from the twin jets. If we’re quick, we can just grab a last look inside.
Ready?
In the cockpit, Murph Cooper sinks back into the co-pilot’s chair, inhaling the familiar scent of oil and leather as the soft lights of the control panel bathe his face. Time to go home, he thinks to himself. Time for all of us to go home for a long, long rest.
Nellie pushes forward on the control stick, and the car rises straight up into the pristine sky of a new day. Within seconds the city beneath them is nothing but a dirty smudge, the cheering crowds left far below.
Mist cloaks the countryside that stretches before them like a fresh blank page as Nellie turns the car towards the pastel streaks of dawn – in the direction of home.
For a moment, just a moment more, the Banshee hangs motionless in the air. Murph and his friends look around at each other. At their torn and filthy costumes. Despite his exhaustion, Kid Normal smiles.
‘Look at us …’ he tells the Super Zeroes. ‘the last of the old Heroes.’
‘The first of the new Heroes,’ corrects Mary, laying her head on his shoulder. He feels hands on his other shoulder as Billy, Hilda and Nellie join the circle for a moment. The first bright ray of sunshine spills over the horizon, picking out the silver-blue car in the sky like a last star shining alone in the sunrise.
‘That was a bad one,’ says Billy a little shakily. ‘Thought our number was up a few times there.’
‘You did great, though,’ Hilda tells him proudly. ‘What a Hero.’ There’s a slight parp as Billy’s right ear balloons in embarrassment.
Nellie squints ahead into the brightening sky. She’s smiling slightly as she always does when she’s flying, never more comfortable than when she sits behind the Banshee’s controls.
The jets rotate, and the car leaps forward and away.
If you should meet any of them in your own stories, these Super Zeroes, give them our love, OK? Say hello to Hilda’s horses for us – don’t give them sugar lumps, it’s bad for their teeth. Make sure you listen to anything Nellie has to say. When she does speak, it’s worth paying attention. If you need good advice, always turn to Mary first. Oh, and make sure Billy doesn’t try and chicken out if you send him on a dangerous mission.
And Murph? Well … just tell him we’re proud of him. He’s had quite an adventure.
But for now, we’re the ones being left behind. Look, already the Banshee’s just a silvery speck … miles away as it roars through the first clear sky of summer. Leaving its delicate rainbow of blue vapour trails across the dawn as it carries the Final Five towards their bright, unwritten future.
All we can do is watch, and say …
Goodbye.
THANKS …
Almost five years ago, we sat in the park one summer’s evening and started telling a story about a boy called Murph.
The first person to read it and join Team Normal was our agent, Stephanie Thwaites, so our first and biggest thanks go to her.
Next our story arrived at Bloomsbury and entered the enormous brain of Hannah Sandford, who is our brilliant ed
itor, our grammatical rock, and our good and kind friend.
Thanks to everyone at Bedford Square present and past – we are grateful to you all … Nigel, Emma, Rebecca, Ian, Bea, Jade, Sarah, Fliss, Nick, Sarah, Janene, Glen, Kate and the Emilys. Team Normal is a special one to be a part of.
The ultra-cool Erica Salcedo brought our characters to life and we send all the abrazos in the world from our families to hers.
To all the publishers and translators who have let Murph and his friends and enemies travel around the world: thanks, tak, gracias, danke, obrigado, 谢谢.
A very special thank you to anyone who ever left a nice review or sent us a kind message – you can never understand how much it means to us.
And lastly … you, person reading these words right now. Thanks to YOU, from the bottom of our hearts, for enjoying our stories. Now … go and write your own adventures!
FROM GREG: To every Kid Normal reader we’ve met over the last four books, you have made it all worthwhile. Hope to see loads more of you soon. And to my great pal Chris – it’s so fun sitting around trying to make each other laugh. Thank you, m’lord. Let’s keep doing it, eh?
AND FROM CHRIS: thanks most of all to Jenny and Lucas – without you it’s a waste of time. I send love to my mum and dad, and to my grandparents, who became Carl and the Blue Phantom, wherever they all may be. Gutted none of you got to see this. And finally … a quick word of thanks to myself. You’ve had a tough few years, kiddo. Flipping well done.
CHRIS SMITH is an award-winning author, broadcaster and parent (a mug saying ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ counts as an award, right?). He grew up in leafy Northamptonshire and now lives in not-as-leafy North London with his wife, son and a cat called Mabel, who can talk. If you listen very carefully to the George Michael song ‘Outside’ you can hear a sample of Chris reading the news. He makes excellent tea.
GREG JAMES is an award-winning author and broadcaster, best known for hosting Radio 1 Breakfast, but he hasn’t won any awards for being a parent because he isn’t one. He circumnavigated the M25 during his childhood and is now living with his wife Bella and their dog Barney in North London. Greg and Chris’s houses are connected by a secret tunnel that they use for exchanging ideas via an elaborate pulley system. He makes terrible tea.
