Rise of the Heroes

by Andy Briggs

  “I’ll deal with them! The rest of you, activate the Storm Engine, make the skies boil with fire! Annihilate Washington DC!”

  With a flourish of his cape, Doc Tempest strode from the room, though the effect was spoiled when the piercing intruder alarm filled the command center as the doors slid open.

  “And turn that alarm off!”

  In the space of a few seconds the airplane fuel had already covered half the distance to the blazing fire. Toby swooped down toward Pete, who had discovered that he could fire smaller laser blasts by blinking quickly, but that made him dizzy. Pete dropped onto the mezzanine level, gripping the rail for support. Toby landed next to him.

  “Pete! We have to stop the flames or the aircraft will explode! That’s our ticket out with Mom!”

  “No problem!” Pete said cockily … then he hesitated. “How?”

  “What’s your other power? We’ve got four, remember? Forget teleporting and flying, I have fireballs and can grow larger. What can you do?”

  Pete set his jaw firmly. It was up to him to save the day. “You’re right! Let’s see!”

  He slid his glasses back on and extended his hands toward the fuel. The superpower welled up—

  And a stream of bubbles issued from his fingers, floating daintily in the air, caught in the thermal upward current of the raging fires below. Toby’s mouth opened in shock.

  “Bubbles? What kind of stupid superpower is that? Bubbles?”

  “Well, I didn’t know!” protested Pete. He thought back to what Chameleon had said about there being no useless powers, and wondered what possible help bubbles could provide. Below them, Lorna suddenly became visible again, her hands glowing.

  “Will you two stop messing around?” She didn’t notice a mercenary was almost upon her, wielding a heavy wrench.

  BLAM! The mercenary was suddenly struck sideways and to the floor as a glue-bullet hit him squarely on the side of the head. Lorna looked around to see her mother, wielding the rifle.

  “I felt like I wasn’t helping out enough,” Sarah said apologetically.

  A set of doors at ground level opened and Doc Tempest strode into the hangar. Lightning bolts surged from his fingers in the vain hope he’d catch one of the young heroes. Instead he did little more than electrocute two of his own men.

  “It ends here, kiddies!” bellowed Doc Tempest.

  “Watch out!” screamed Toby. He wasn’t looking at Tempest but the fuel, which had now reached the burning crates and glider rack. Blue flames rapidly fanned across the floor in two directions, one toward the split fuel hose that was still attached to the large fuel dump against the wall, and the other toward the Hercules.

  The flames reached them both at the same time.

  Doc Tempest had barely taken a step before the fuel tank erupted in an orange mushroom cloud that consumed the entire back wall. The blast threw Tempest across the hangar, where a wall of ice collapsed around him.

  Emily had been watching everything, and had noticed Lorna and Sarah were too close to the fuel tank. She bolted forward, coming to an abrupt halt in front of them—using her metal body to protect them from the blast. Their world turned into a torrent of fire, as flames roared all around, but Emily shielded them from getting burned.

  Nobody could stay on their feet as the hangar shook as if an earthquake had struck. Massive chunks of ice broke from the ceiling, slamming to the ground. Other ice started melting, sending a light rain across the hangar.

  Toby and Pete held on tight as the steel platform shuddered from the blast. They watched as the Hercules blew apart. A flaming section of wing spun toward them, forcing them both to duck and run as it embedded into the wall just above their heads.

  Another section shot sidelong into the U-shaped mezzanine walkway and exploded, again tearing a huge hole in the ice wall, pulling half of the platform down in a crash of steel girders.

  The walkway tilted beneath Toby and Pete, and they hung on for dear life as they rode the structure all the way to the floor. They sprang clear as the walkway folded with a screech of metal.

  All around them the hangar burned. The remaining soldiers had already started fleeing into the side corridor.

  Toby spotted his mother, Lorna, and Emily heaped on the floor and ran across.

  “Mom!” he screamed. “Lorn! Em?”

  They stood up with a groan. The silver coating faded from Emily and she picked herself up, wincing as she stretched her back.

  “Emmie, you okay?” Pete asked with concern. “That is going to hurt for months,” said Emily.

  Lorna helped Sarah stand. Toby was expecting to be shouted at and braced himself for a torrent of unanswerable questions.

  Sarah stared at her son, and then threw herself forward, embracing him in a tight hug he couldn’t—and didn’t want to—escape from.

  “Toby … oh, Toby I love you so much!” She began to cry. Toby could feel the tears welling in his own eyes, but once again choked them back. It wasn’t seemly for a superhero to cry, especially at his moment of victory.

  Lorna grinned, joining in the hug. Pete and Emily glanced at each other and smiled … but no hug was forthcoming there.

  “Guess we can go home now,” said Pete, looking around at the inferno they had created.

  A clatter of rubble made them turn. A gloved fist had punched through the mound of ice in the corner of the blazing hangar, and then another.

  “Ah … guys?” stammered Pete. “We’ve got company!” They all turned to see Doc Tempest rise from the ice like a scruffy and cold phoenix. His normally pale face was red with rage.

  “It’s not over, boy! Not by a long shot!”

  The lights across the hangar flickered. Tempest glanced at them, and then turned back to the group.

  “You see, that means my Storm Engine is about to power up … and wipe the capital of the United States clean off the map!”

  The four heroes strode forward, ready to continue the fight. Doc Tempest’s head snapped back as he roared with amusement.

  “That’s right. You fight me … or you deactivate the weapon and save millions of innocent lives. Oooh … the dilemma! What would real heroes choose to do?” His sniggering echoed from the destruction around them. Then he started making ticktock noises.

  The heroes exchanged nervous glances, all except Toby. Determination was etched on his face.

  “Real heroes would do both.” He stepped forward, fists clenched. Without taking his eyes off Tempest he spoke to the others. “Lorna, you know where the Storm Engine is?”

  “Yeah, we can stop it.”

  “Good, take Mom with you. Pete, go with them!”

  Pete began to protest. “But—”

  “Trust me. I have a really big idea.”

  Pete instantly understood. “Come on, guys. Toby’s got this covered. Lorna, lead the way!”

  They hesitated, but Pete urged them across the hangar toward the door Lorna had pointed to. Sarah cast one last look at her son, squaring up to the supervillain.

  “Toby! Be careful!” she screamed.

  Pete gently pushed her forward. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Wilkinson. He’s got things under control.”

  Doc Tempest watched the others disappear from the hangar, then turned his puzzled glance to Toby.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” he rumbled. “You dare to try and ruin my entire scheme and then think I would have issues with crushing a boy?”

  “No joke. Just you and me! But before I humiliate you … just one thing. What did happen to your head?”

  The condescending look on Doc Tempest’s face faded. “I will make you wish you’d never been born when you feel my wrath!”

  What he wasn’t prepared for was to see Toby suddenly grow. It all happened very quickly. First his hands swelled to three times their normal size; then the effect spread along his arms. His body, head, and legs swiftly followed to a chorus of ripping clothes.

  Doc Tempest raised his hands to fire a lightning bolt, but he hesitated
in alarm when he saw that the boy was twice as large as he was, with muscles popping under the ribbons of clothing that still clung to his skin—including, thankfully, his pants.

  Lorna and Pete were running ahead of Emily and Sarah. Lorna spoke low to her brother’s friend.

  “Don’t worry—Emily has a mind control power. We already worked it out—my mother will, you know … forget about all of this once we get home.”

  Pete gave her a meaningful glance and nodded.

  “Hey, guys,” shouted Emily, out of breath. “Wouldn’t this be quicker flying?”

  “Um … I can’t fly,” said Sarah.

  Pete and Emily hooked an arm each under Sarah’s armpits and took her weight.

  “I don’t know how to do this!” Sarah yelled nervously. “It’s easy,” said Pete. “All you have to do is miss the ground!”

  BAM! It was like running into a mountain. Doc Tempest staggered back from Toby, slightly dazed. Toby tried to rush him again, but this time Tempest dropped down and away. Toby swung a huge fist, but it was too slow, allowing Tempest just enough time to roll aside.

  Doc Tempest jumped to his feet, arms extended; lightning bolts gushed from his fingers and struck Giant Toby. Toby reeled back—it hurt, like being stuck by pins. But in his giant form, it didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as it should.

  Tempest stopped in surprise, and Toby took a thunderous step forward, suddenly aware he was wading through water. The fires were melting the ice on the walls and ceiling. Cracks began to spread across the walls and roof with alarming speed. Small pieces of ice were raining down.

  Doc Tempest looked up to watch his precious Antarctic base crumble around him—and didn’t see Toby’s backhand that connected with him. Tempest reeled backward, rubbing the side of his head.

  Toby bore down on Tempest in a fury of punches. “That’s for my mother! And that one’s for demolishing my house!”

  The final punch walloped Tempest’s jaw, and the villain skidded along the hangar floor in a spray of icy water.

  Spittle flew from Toby’s mouth as he lost his temper. “And that’s for ruining my life!”

  Doc Tempest rubbed his jaw, and then raised his hand as Toby lumbered toward him. Toby’s anger had made him drop his guard—it was just the opportunity that Tempest was waiting for.

  A stream of ice leaped from Tempest’s fingers and smothered Toby, freezing him to the spot like an ice sculpture.

  They flew down the corridors, occasionally bouncing from the walls as they took a corner wide. There was no sign of guards in the corridor, which gently spiraled up the cone of the mountain. A familiar double sliding door appeared ahead.

  “This is it!” said Lorna.

  “I’ll go first!” shouted Pete, pushing his glasses back on his head and leaping into the room.

  The Storm Engine was glowing with a radiant energy, and the humming from it was steadily rising in pitch. The glass canopy of the mountain peak had opened on hydraulic arms, and a bitterly cold wind was blowing inside, and with it flurries of snow.

  The technicians were still there. They hadn’t heard the new arrivals as they all wore ear protectors and were staring fixedly at the Weapon of Mass Destruction.

  “Nobody move!” bellowed Pete.

  Nobody could hear him. Pete aimed his laser vision with a series of short pulses that blew up several of the control consoles. The technicians spun around, pulling their ear protectors away.

  “Nobody move,” repeated Pete, who was disappointed his initial dramatic entrance had passed unheard. To emphasize his point, he shot a bundle of cables with his laser vision. But that seemed to increase the tempo of the machine. The technicians raised their hands in surrender, quickly shuffling to the far corner of the room, away from the machine.

  “How do we stop it?”

  “Let me try!” shouted Emily.

  She took to the air and allowed her skin to flow into liquid metal once again. Then she flew for the heart of the Storm Engine.

  The central column detonated with a huge white flash as she passed through—the tip of the dish blew apart in a more traditionally satisfying explosion.

  The technicians charged from the room in panic.

  Lorna landed back with her friends as further eruptions rocked the Storm Engine. The pitch of the machine was now building to ear-screeching proportions.

  “It’s going to blow!” shouted Emily. “We better get out of here!”

  “How?” shouted Pete as the floor began to buck. “I … um … somebody blew up the plane, and that was our ticket out!”

  “We’ll have to try to teleport!” screamed Lorna as the noise grew in intensity.

  “Can we teleport your mom?” asked Emily. “She doesn’t have superpowers!”

  “We have to try!”

  “Not without Toby!” Pete screamed back. A wide crack shot along the ice floor between Pete’s legs, forcing him to hop aside.

  “We know where he is—we’re not leaving him behind!” replied Lorna, throwing her arms around her mother, who momentarily mistook it as a sign of affection.

  “It’s okay …,” Sarah began soothingly.

  “Grab my mom! We’re leaving!”

  Pete and Emily threw their arms around Sarah, and concentrated hard…

  Doc Tempest was on his feet, and wobbling precariously as the ground shook beneath him and ice rained down with increasing frequency. He stared at frozen Toby with malice.

  “You can’t defeat me, boy! I’ve been in this game too long. I know all your tricks!”

  Tempest began advancing, sploshing through the ankle-deep water. Toby felt the stabbing chill of his ice prison. It was made worse because he was half naked, wearing shredded clothing. He only had one choice. He began to tense every muscle in his overgrown body. Massive tendons pushed against the ice—

  CRUNCH! The ice cast around Toby shattered, pelting wedges at Doc Tempest. Toby stepped from the ice prison.

  “I’ve already beaten you, Tempest!” Toby allowed himself to shrink back to normal size; using one hand to make sure his tattered clothing didn’t all fall off. “It’s time you surrendered.”

  “Your mistake is letting me live!”

  With a pop of displaced air, Lorna, Pete, Emily, and Sarah suddenly appeared in the hangar.

  “It works!” shouted Pete excitedly. “We can teleport your mom! But we have to leave now! This whole place is about to explode!”

  A house-sized slab of the roof dislodged directly above Tempest and Toby. Toby sprang away as hard as he could. He heard Tempest bellow his name.

  The fiend raised his arms in a pathetic attempt to stop the block as it struck the floor in a colossal splash of water. Tempest was pinned underneath, legs crushed. He reached out pathetically.

  “Help me … please,” he said in a hoarse voice.

  Toby felt oddly numb. He had no desire to save the fiend, but knew it was the right thing to do.

  “Like I said: I’ve already beaten you.”

  Toby took a step forward to help Tempest—but noticed that the villain had extended his arms for a last lightning strike. Toby saw the electrical charge manifest in Tempest’s hand—at the exact moment he felt an arm move around his waist.

  The lightning bolt fizzled the air where Toby had been standing. The heroes had all teleported away.

  Amid the fire and falling ice, Tempest was too weak to even curse.

  From the vast, barren planes of the Antarctic it seemed as if an entire peak of one of the mountains had exploded in a miniature mushroom cloud. But the flames soon faded as freezing winds smothered the mountains with more snow.

  They had been home for a day, having fallen instantly asleep as their heads touched their pillows. And just in time too, as their superpowers had run out within minutes of returning. Emily’s parents had insisted Sarah could stay until she could sort things out with her own home.

  Sarah had fully recovered from her diabetic attack and had no recollection of what had happened
after the twister struck her home. Her best guess was that she must have been carried away by the freak tornado and dropped unconscious some distance away. She had no memory of anything other than waking on the sofa in Emily’s house.

  Toby was a little puzzled by this, until Lorna took him aside and explained that Emily’s mind control power had blanked the events from her mind.

  The secret of Hero.com was safe.

  Toby recalled Chameleon’s words about the path of a hero. They had overcome danger and had learned to work together as a team. The danger and risks had been worth it.

  Lorna once more voiced her idea that they should use their powers to do some high-profile heroic work that would get them on a TV talk show. Emily was more cautious; she preferred keeping a lid on things. At least until they had a little more experience. This caused a heated discussion between the three friends.

  Only Pete kept quiet. He was wrestling with his own thoughts. On one hand he was reveling in having superpowers. But returning home to his parents’ ongoing and increasingly bitter arguments shadowed that thrill, as did the knowledge that he would be bullied again at school. It was a real downer for a hero to face. If only he could think of a way to change things.

  On TV they watched as news reports came in that gold stolen from Fort Knox had been found in Antarctica, and was currently being retrieved. Although, apparently, there was no sign of the thieves.

  All four of the heroes sat in Emily’s kitchen, nursing their bruises and feeling immense pride over their achievements. Then Sarah came rushing into the room, sobbing.

  “Mom … what’s the matter?” Toby asked anxiously. He prayed she had not suddenly remembered her children flying around, shooting fireballs and turning invisible.

  “It’s your father,” she said, between sobs. “He was returning from his dig. We’ve just heard reports about his plane … it’s having mechanical trouble … and they don’t think it can land! He’s going to crash!”

  Pete mumbled under his breath. “Why is your family always in danger?”