The Superpower Project

by Paul Bristow

“Oh, you think?” said Cam, scowling at TJ.

  “None of this would have happened if there had been a danger sign, Cameron,” said TJ.

  Chapter 10.

  Bricks and Mortar

  Even if Cam hadn’t just lost his next month’s pocket money, it was pretty clear to Megan that Tin Jimmy would no longer be welcome at his house. It was time for a flit.

  This time Megan and Cam decided to move TJ using a wheelbarrow. But after a few minutes of pushing, Megan was hoping for another lift from the police.

  “This is heavier,” said Cam. “How can it be heavier?”

  “At least it has wheels,” said Megan.

  “Would it help if I used my wheels?” asked TJ.

  “Your wheels?” asked Megan.

  A pair of ancient-looking roller skates popped out of the robot’s feet.

  “You have wheels!” shouted Cam. “Why didn’t you say that before we started carrying you round like a king?”

  TJ clicked. “It did not seem important.”

  “Cam, honestly, a roller-skating robot would probably have attracted even more attention.”

  TJ’s wheels clunked back in.

  “Where are we taking him anyway?” scowled Cam. “Somewhere he can’t blow anything up, I hope.”

  “You know number two on Gran’s map marks the old tobacco warehouses, down by the dock? I thought maybe we could leave him there when we check them out,” suggested Megan. “You said they were lying empty.”

  “Yeah…” said Cam, “but I thought they were getting knocked down.”

  “Even more reason to search the place soon then.”

  Cam made the new face he had for whenever Megan talked about the map. It was supposed to make him look interested and pleased that they might be going somewhere dangerous, but it just looked like he had a dodgy tummy.

  “It’ll do for now anyway. Won’t it TJ?” said Megan.

  “It sounds better than the hazardous shed,” said TJ.

  “The shed was fine before you moved in,” said Cam.

  ***

  The old tobacco warehouses were just hollow shells in the truest sense. Going inside one was like being on a film set where the buildings are really just the front bit held up with wooden beams. Although each one had four sides and a roof, there was nothing left inside but broken glass, rubble and some very well-established pigeon colonies.

  Megan, Cam and TJ stared through the grimy framework, collapsed fire escapes and missing floors. Now they were out of sight, TJ was free to move about on his own. His joints were much less noisy now Cam and Megan had oiled and cleaned him, and he was fully charged.

  “Ehm… will you be ok here for a few nights TJ? Just until we find something better?” Megan felt a bit guilty about how they had ‘rescued’ him by moving him from a dank tunnel to a flimsy shed to a rotting warehouse.

  “There are a lot of pigeons,” observed TJ. “Can I have an umbrella?”

  “Honestly, it won’t be for long.” Megan glanced over at Cam, hoping he would chip in with something positive and reassuring. He just looked horrified.

  “Why would Gran want me to come here?” mused Megan.

  “Why would anyone want to come here?” said Cam. “It’s even worse than the gym hall.”

  Some pigeons flew between the beams above, scattering the intruders with old brick dust and dried pigeon poo.

  “Any ideas TJ?” said Megan. “Do you remember ever coming here with Gran? It doesn’t really seem like her sort of place.”

  “I do not recognise this building,” said TJ, staring up towards the sky through the gaps in the roof.

  “I suppose we’d better start looking then,” said Megan. “I just wish I knew what we were looking for. Is there gonna be a robot at every place on the map?”

  “If it’s another robot then I’m out,” said Cam. “We still haven’t worked out what to do with this one.”

  Megan patted TJ on the shoulder. “TJ knows what he’s for, and he’ll tell us when he’s remembered. Right?”

  “And what is Cameron for?”

  Megan snorted. “He’s mostly here to moan. But he is helpfully tall.”

  She wandered over to look around the old office space on the right-hand side of the building, while Cam rummaged around an entire wall full of shelves. TJ, eyes alight, peered into the darker areas of the warehouse.

  “Y’know Megan, difficult to say whether we’ve found something when we have no idea what we’re looking for,” said Cam. “I mean, I’ve found loads of damp old newspapers and some dead pigeons if that’s what we’re after.”

  Megan had wandered over to one of the holes in the floor and was peering down. “Cam, could you come and have a look at this?”

  “Not if it means I have to climb down a hole,” said Cam, walking over anyway.

  “Look.” Megan pointed into the hole. “Can you see that?”

  The gap opened down onto a dark room, presumably the cellars of the warehouse. But there was something metallic jammed between the stone floor they were standing on and the ceiling beams of the cellar below.

  “It looks like a box,” said Megan. “Can you reach it if I hold onto you?”

  “Think so,” said Cam. “It’s not too far. TJ, come and anchor us both while I see if I can stretch down.”

  Cam lay on the floor, leaning into the gap, while Megan sat on his legs and TJ held his feet.

  “Got it,” said Cam. “It’s really light.”

  It was an old scratched biscuit tin, covered in faded pictures from fairy tales. Megan’s hands were shaking as she opened it. Inside was what looked like an old brass coin.

  “What is it?” asked Cam. “Is it actual treasure?”

  “I’m not sure,” said Megan, examining the coin. “It’s got strange letters and symbols on it, but no pictures of the Queen or anything.”

  “Must be really old then,” said Cam.

  “Do you know what this is TJ?” said Megan.

  “I… have seen something like it before. Ago.”

  “Is it connected to my gran, Sarah?”

  There was a crash from outside, dust fell from the ceiling. TJ instinctively moved in front of them.

  A creak, then another crash, and they could see bricks falling from the wall in the far corner.

  “We’ll talk about it later,” said Megan, slipping the coin into her pocket. “Let’s go.”

  But Tin Jimmy was heading straight towards the noise and falling bricks.

  “Not that way!” hissed Cam.

  The brickwork finally gave way, tumbling inwards as a steel wrecking ball pummelled the side of the building, sending pigeons fleeing for the skies.

  Chapter 11.

  Smash and Grab

  “You are kidding,” said Megan “They’re knocking it down right now?”

  A massive black shape was visible through the brick dust, moving slowly forward into the building. At first, they assumed it was a bulldozer, though its odd shape and shadows were confusing. It was Cam who realised first.

  “It’s Resilience!”

  “What?” asked Megan.

  “Resilience. You know… the really horrible jaggy sculpture from the roundabout!”

  Megan looked, and sure enough, there were the steel beams, now acting as legs; the spheres, now two huge wrecking-ball fists at the end of interlocking steel arms; and the polished silver-and-black glass pyramid, now the dangerous and angry-looking head of…

  “A robot!” said Megan. “The sculpture’s a robot!”

  “Looks like it,” said Cam, “and I don’t think it likes the look of your robot.”

  Resilience pounded across the warehouse towards TJ, scattering further dust and debris as he came.

  “TJ, get back!” yelled Megan.

  Resilience’s faceless pyramid head turned towards them, the rest of its body swivelling slowly behind it. It began banging its way towards Megan and Cam instead. Cam seemed to have tuned out completely; he was simply staring in open-mo
uthed terror. Megan knew there was only one way to escape quickly enough, and it meant doing something really silly. She had been so careful up to now, but the thought of her or Cam being crushed by either the falling building or a giant robot was too much; Megan grabbed Cam and flew straight upwards, darting and weaving like a sparrow through the crumbling roof.

  This seemed to wake Cam up.

  “Aaaaaaiiiiieeeerrrgggaaaagghh!” he screamed.

  Below, Resilience stopped, tilting its pointed head upwards only once, before rotating back around towards Tin Jimmy.

  “You’re really heavy for someone so skinny,” said Megan. She carefully dropped the stunned Cam behind the fence, some way back from the building. “Back soon. Stay here.”

  Megan flew back, entering the building through the hole Resilience had punched in the wall. The damage had already started bringing down huge chunks of the old building. Resilience was currently struggling under some rubble it had brought down upon itself, and TJ was trapped beneath a massive girder that had slipped from the cracked roof.

  Megan skirted around Resilience towards him. “You ok?”

  “My arms are bending, Megan. The wrong way.”

  “I’m going to get you out of here,” said Megan, glancing around her.

  “You are flying,” said TJ, “like Sarah.”

  “Wait, what? Gran could fly too?”

  The building rumbled again.

  “Tell me later,” said Megan.

  She pulled and pulled at the girder trapping TJ, and as she did, she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye: a dark grey blur. Resilience had freed itself from the rubble and was crashing towards them, bringing beams and rubble down with it.

  “Come on!” Megan hauled at TJ’s metal arm, pleading with him to move, but she could not budge him.

  Then, something was beside her, pulling at TJ’s other arm with the same urgency. She turned to look into the eyes of a huge silverback gorilla. It grinned at her and continued pulling.

  Trying very hard not to panic and fly away, despite the kind of day it had turned into, Megan pulled too. Finally the three of them tumbled back down the steel steps of the fire escape and out onto the streets.

  The building collapsed further in on itself (like the flan Cam made in home economics last month) then burst into flames (like the flan Cam made in home economics last week).

  Resilience was having trouble standing up under the crumbling wreckage, but it was still slowly moving torwards them. Next to Megan, TJ lay crumpled, sparkling and fizzing in a puddle.

  “We have to get away!” Megan yelled towards where she’d left Cam – but he was gone.

  There was a tremendous thud and a crack, then another. Megan looked back to see that the gorilla had returned to smash Resilience with one of the girders. There was a massive square dent in the side of Resilience’s pyramid head as it crashed, at last, to the ground.

  Panicking, Megan scanned the area. She knew Cam wouldn’t have run off without her. She glanced back at the building, terrified that he might have run back in without her noticing.

  Megan turned to TJ, who was still fizzing. “Where’s Cam? Did you see him?”

  TJ didn’t speak, but a low growl from over by Resilience made Megan realise that, in addition to a broken sculpture and a collapsed building, she had another problem to deal with: What do you do with an escaped gorilla?

  The big animal was now curled amid the rubble. Maybe it was hurt? Megan was fairly sure that ‘Do not approach the gorilla as it may be dangerous’ was the usual advice in these situations. So why was she walking towards it?

  I can fly away – straight up if I need to, she kept thinking to herself.

  Curiously, as she drew closer, the great beast seemed to shrink. Its thick black hair receded until there was no gorilla, only the awkwardly crouching body of a boy. He turned to Megan and grinned wonkily.

  “You never told me you could fly,” Cam said.

  Chapter 12.

  Ways and Means

  Just for a moment, Cam seemed to enjoy having the upper hand. He smiled.

  Megan stared, open-mouthed and stunned. And then she punched Cam very hard on the arm. “You were a gorilla!”

  “I know,” said Cam, rubbing his arm. “I’m not one now though.”

  “How were you a gorilla?”

  “I… can change into animals.”

  Megan had known Cam since they were three years old. She saw him every single day. How had she not known? “That’s… that’s really weird Cam.”

  “So’s being able to fly. Or having a pet robot.”

  “How do you do it?” she asked.

  “I’m not actually sure how it works yet,” explained Cam. “I can only do a few, and one of those is hamster. How do you fly?”

  Megan had trouble explaining this to herself, so she had no idea how to tell someone else. “It’s a bit like… the ground and everything else is falling, but I’m standing still. And I just… let it all fall.”

  “It looked really cool.”

  “Well, you were an endangered species. Cam this is amazing. I’ve been keeping this a secret for months. I thought I was going to burst!”

  Cam nodded. “I was going to tell my dad, but he’s quite allergic to animals. Except snakes. But I can’t do snakes.”

  “I don’t know how, but my gran knew,” said Megan. “She left me a note with the map. TJ said she could fly too!”

  “Your gran could fly? Really?”

  “Maybe having superpowers runs in the family?”

  “My gran wasn’t super,” said Cam. “She mostly knitted and drank whisky. Mind you, if she turned into animals it might explain why Dad avoided her so much… maybe he was allergic to her.”

  Megan hugged Cam happily. Cam patted her on the shoulder, not really sure how best to react. They ran over to TJ, who had stopped sparking by this point, and was gathering himself up.

  “We must go. Quickly,” he said.

  “You’re coming to stay with me, TJ,” said Megan, as they walked briskly away from the devastation behind them. “And Cam has superpowers too!”

  “Yes. I saw,” said TJ. “Though I think flying is superior.”

  For a change, Cam politely ignored TJ.

  “How did you find out?” Megan asked Cam, after a thoughtful silence.

  Cam knew what she meant. “One morning I woke up and I didn’t know where I was. Everything was black, my heart was pounding. I was terrified.”

  “Oh, Cam,” said Megan, “that sounds horrible.”

  “I eventually saw light and headed towards it, and I fell right out the end of my bed and onto the floor in front of my mirror. It was so strange. I knew I was looking at myself, but it wasn’t me in the mirror. It was a hamster. I totally panicked, started screaming, and then all of a sudden I was myself again, shouting at the top of my voice. My mum came running up the stairs; she thought I’d broken something…”

  “That’s awful,” said Megan.

  “Wasn’t too bad. I did get a day off school out of it,” said Cam. “It’s happened quite a few times since then, but I’m more in control of it now. I get this sort of fizzing… it starts in my stomach and moves up into my chest,” said Cam.

  “I get that too! Like fireflies in your tummy.”

  “That’s it, yeah. Been happening for about six months.”

  Megan frowned. “Seriously, what are the chances of us both having strange powers? Something really weird is going on.”

  “You’re telling me. Secret maps, robots, superpowers. I wonder if we could get special circumstances at school for all the stress we’re under?”

  “Should we tell someone?” asked Megan. It felt more possible now she was no longer alone.

  “Tell them what?” said Cam. “No one’s X-raying me and putting me in a freezer. So let’s forget telling anyone. It’s just us.”

  “It isn’t just us, though, is it?” Megan looked at TJ. “You said my gran could fly too. Do you know what
’s going on?”

  Beneath his blank expression, Megan could tell he was working something out.

  “This… has happened before,” he said.

  “With Sarah?” asked Megan.

  “Yes… something… in the water,” said TJ. He stared out towards the river, as if hoping that whatever it was would suddenly float to the surface. It didn’t.

  “That explanation actually hasn’t made anything clearer,” said Cam. “Do you know why we have superpowers?”

  “I can’t remember.”

  “What exactly can you remember?” asked Cam angrily.

  “Cam!” said Megan. “He’s been hidden away for ages; it’s all still coming back to him.”

  “Well, take your time TJ,” said Cam. “It’s not as if we were just deliberately attacked by a giant robot sculpture.”

  “Let’s hope we finished it off for good,” said Megan.

  “Yep. Especially because it saw us using our powers.”

  Megan hadn’t thought of that. She didn’t mind Cam and TJ knowing she could fly, but Resilience seemed a little less trustworthy. It was the way it had tried to crush her under a building that had really put her off.

  “Do you think it was only after TJ?” said Cam. “Maybe it’s just like a robot thing.”

  “It did not seem interested in getting to know me,” said TJ. “I seemed to be in its way.”

  Megan took the coin out of her pocket. “What if it’s something to do with this and my gran’s map?”

  TJ took the coin from Megan, and stared at it once again. “It is possible.”

  “How would Resilience know about your gran’s map?” asked Cam. “Maybe that’s just how Waterworx destroys old buildings.”

  “Wait!” said Megan. “Do you think the other sculptures might be robots too?”

  Cam stared at her like somebody who felt that two robots was more than enough to be worrying about right now.

  “Remember at the shipyard…” said Megan, “lights and tapping noises were coming from inside Phoenix Egg!”

  “And what – you think there was a robot in there waiting to… hatch?”

  “It’s all got to be connected, don’t you think?” said Megan. “The powers, the map, the big robot… we just have to work out how.”