by Andy Briggs
Twenty Enforcers were crammed into the chamber in two tiers; the front row knelt to allow the row behind to fire. They all braced their weapons against their shoulders, took aim down the barrels of their state-of-the-art Heckler & Koch automatic weaponry, and rested their fingers on the triggers as the elevator descended from the ceiling.
Agonizing seconds passed before the elevator rose once more to reveal the elevator’s lone occupant: Viral. He stood motionless in the middle of the chamber with his hands on his head. The sign of surrender made the Enforcers hesitate.
The prisoner stood passively. The Enforcer commander felt he should say something.
“Um … don’t move. Your little escape plan’s over, pal.”
What happened next was very quick. Viral nodded in understanding.
And then he sneezed.
For a few precious seconds the commander thought the prisoner was accepting his fate. Then one of the guards suddenly realized just who the prisoner was, but it was too late even to cover his mouth.
The sneeze shot out at a typical ninety-five miles per hour. It carried millions of airborne viruses that spread across the group of Enforcers in a little over three seconds. Viral had the power to create and spread a disease of his choosing, causing almost limitless effects.
Within five seconds every Enforcer in the room was lying on the ground clutching his stomach as sharp pains struck them. Their eyes bulged as their limbs stiffened in rapid rigor mortis. Within ten seconds every soldier was dead. Viral looked around at his handiwork with a thin smile. It had been years since he’d last exercised his power and it felt great.
The elevator lowered again and Basilisk, Worm, and Trojan appeared. They looked at the dead guards with a mix of admiration and apprehension.
“Amazing,” said Trojan. “They weren’t wrong about you, were they? We’re not gonna, like, catch something, are we?”
Viral winked at her. “My infection died the moment the guards did. You’ll be fine.”
Basilisk had trouble stepping over the Enforcers and winced every time he came into contact with one of the corpses. Worm retrieved a fallen gun, which looked comically huge against his diminutive size. He followed them out, using his sleeve to cover his mouth in case he inhaled the contaminant.
Basilisk dealt with the auto-guns in the corridor, but each energy blast was costing him his strength.
Outside, the alarms were louder than ever and Basilisk could see Enforcers running for cover. The sloping passage opened up in the middle courtyard. It was one hundred feet to the wall or any type of shelter. Again the open-plan security concept was working against him. He needed some form of protection.
Basilisk glanced up and saw a twin-engine aircraft come in to land. Its tilt-rotors moved from horizontal to vertical position as it hovered over a helipad on the roof of one of several facility buildings. That would provide just the protection they needed.
Gathering all his strength, Basilisk shot a mighty energy bolt from his hands, and then sagged to his knees. The bolt struck one of the engines, tearing off the wing. As he had anticipated, the aircraft rolled onto its side—and dropped onto the building below. Propelled by the remaining rotor the craft flipped off the building and came crashing into the courtyard as the second wing exploded—sending fragments of rotor in every direction. Enforcers positioned on the roof had to duck to avoid being decapitated.
Worm fired his stolen gun in random directions as they ran for the shelter offered by the downed aircraft. The recoil from the weapon almost knocked the little man off his feet. Once again, no help was offered to Basilisk, who had very little strength left in him. It took sheer willpower to force himself back on his feet and follow the others to the safety of the crashed aircraft.
Toby vowed never to travel in an airplane again. They just kept crashing. Dim red emergency lights were on, but smoke was filling the fuselage and he had to keep his head low so he could breathe. Any item that was not bolted down was now scattered across the floor … Toby corrected himself, scattered across the ceiling. The aircraft was upside down. He could feel the intense heat from the burning wings outside and it was only a matter of time before the interior caught fire.
“Lorna! Em? Pete?” he shouted. His eyes were beginning to sting now.
“We’re here!” Emily shouted. The girls had bravely dragged the unconscious pilot and copilot from the cockpit but there was no sign of Mr. Grimm. Emily had a cut across her cheek, but as Toby watched, it healed itself and vanished—a healing factor from her random powers. Lorna was next to her, with the neck of her jacket pulled up over her mouth to filter the smoke.
“Where’s Pete?” he asked.
A tearing noise snatched their attention as a massive hole was torn in the side of the fuselage. Standing in the hole was a huge muscular figure that must be Pete—he had swollen biceps that made it look as though he had been pumping iron since birth. Toby himself had gone through a similar transformation when he faced Doc Tempest, but Pete’s power was even more impressive as both arms were also aflame. And judging by Pete’s lack of reaction, Toby correctly guessed the flames were another malfunctioning superpower that had crossed with the enhanced strength.
The courtyard was pandemonium. Pete hurled aside a chunk of fuselage that he had torn away to allow his friends to escape. The fuselage struck Worm and Viral, the force of the blow throwing them halfway across the yard. Basilisk watched in amazement as Pete strode from the wreckage.
“Supers!” he yelled in warning. Basilisk had assumed that the Primes would be running for cover, and with the Web site down, there would be no fake heroes like this bunch. They were yet another complication to his plan. Basilisk was starting to feel frustrated.
Enforcers gathered along the rim of the courtyard. They had no idea if the crashed plane was carrying heroes or more super-criminals for incarceration. They opted to play it safe and opened fire on everybody.
Toby, Emily, and Lorna ran from the blazing plane, dragging the pilots. They looked around in alarm as bullets chewed up the ground near their feet.
Lorna yelled at the top of her voice. “Stop shooting at us! We’re on your side, you idiots!”
Emily instinctively raised a shield and an energy bubble encased them both—but it failed to stretch to Toby.
Toby leaped into the air without thinking and was relieved to discover that he could fly. He rose above the battle to get some idea of what was happening. He noticed Worm and Basilisk, the two main villains they had been briefed about. Basilisk seemed to have an injured leg, and was propped against the remains of the aircraft. Toby thought Worm’s photographs did justice to just how ugly he was. His bright red cape made him an easy target and the brooch that clasped it together reflected the courtyard’s searchlights. Its swirling design glinted in Toby’s eyes.
Toby felt himself transfixed by the whirling motion. He could feel himself relax despite the chaos around him. In fact he couldn’t think of any reason to do anything other than gaze at the shiny …
Pete moved into Toby’s line of sight, breaking the spell. Toby shook his head to remove the hypnotic effect, and remembered Mr. Grimm’s briefing had warned them about Worm’s more archaic villain props such as the hypno-disk.
Toby noticed the other two villains. One he recognized from the briefing as Trojan and assumed the scrawny-looking Goth was Viral, the prisoner Grimm suspected they’d rescue.
Time to end this prison break, he thought.
Apart from the villains, the circle of Enforcers was the immediate threat to his friends. Toby noticed a portion of the aircraft’s wing was angled against the courtyard wall; it would offer protection from the gunfire. He gestured to it as he yelled: “Lorna! Run for the wing! Get the pilots out of the line of fire!”
“Are you deaf? Stop shooting!” Emily screamed irritably, as the bullets continued striking. The Enforcers didn’t listen, and she would have been surprised if such a simple plea convinced seasoned soldiers, anyway.
T
he intense flames that spread over Pete’s body melted the bullets shot at him. He was only struck by molten metal, which felt, through his muscular body, like being hit by a paintball.
Basilisk didn’t have the strength for a three-way battle, and targeted the retreating girls.
Viral had picked himself up and fired a black mist at Pete. Pete retaliated with a whiplike strand of fire that incinerated the lethal virus swarm.
Toby was impressed with Pete’s ability to adapt to the sudden change in situation. He tried to soar over Pete’s assailant, but discovered he was fixed to the spot. Confused, he tried to gain altitude then lower himself, which he did without a problem—he just couldn’t move around. With despair he recognized the power as something Pete had mistakenly downloaded when they took out some local gangsters a week ago—levitation.
Up and down was all he had.
Worm pulled himself from under the chunk of fuselage. He locked eyes with Toby—and for a brief second there was a vague glimmer of recognition, a connection … in the past? Impossible, of course. The sound of bullets pulled Worm back to the present. His powers were useless here, the solid rock under his feet meant he couldn’t bury himself. Instead he decided the floating boy was an easy target as he hung above the battlefield, so turned his gun on him. The report from the gun made him close his eyes.
At the same time, a pair of Enforcers decided to take out the same target.
Toby cut the levitation power and dropped a few feet to the ground—just as multiple streams of bullets combed through the air where he had been moments before. He rolled to his feet and extended his hands in the hope he had some type of projectile power.
Luck was with him.
Worm opened his eyes to see if he had hit his target. The boy was now pointing at him—and a bolt of lightning flickered from his fingers and split Worm’s gun in two.
Emily and Lorna tucked the pilots safely under the wing, but now Emily’s shield started to waver—at first it rippled like jelly from the bullet impacts before it suddenly turned into water. The water-shield hung in the air for a split second, before splashing uselessly to the ground.
“Our powers are changing!” yelled Lorna as she dragged her friend to safety behind a burning fragment of aircraft wing.
Toby unleashed another lightning bolt. Electricity arced toward Worm—but then the lightning transformed into smoke.
Trojan had been keeping low behind her shield as the battle raged. Now she was feeling strong again. “Let’s go!” she yelled as she whirled her cape around, expanding it.
Worm turned on his heels and sprinted away, galvanized when he saw Pete turn toward him—the flames now covered his body from head to foot.
Toby tore his gaze away from Pete, who was looking very impressive, and found Viral blocking his path. The villain gave a humorless grin and grabbed both of Toby’s forearms before he could summon another power.
“They’re sending kids in now to stop Viral? What an insult!”
Toby struggled, but the scrawny man was surprisingly strong. In fact, Toby was beginning to think his powers had abandoned him.
“Do you know what I can do?” growled Viral. “What exquisite agony I can cause?”
Toby met Viral’s gaze and tried to hide his disgust at his yellow, bloodshot eyes. With a hiss, Viral’s hands turned black and Toby’s sleeves began to rot away as the material decayed. Toby felt a stab of pain as Viral’s fingers dissolved the material and touched his wrists. He felt a burning sensation that made his knees tremble.
Summoning all his strength Toby pulled his arms away—and this time the superpowers surged back with such force that Viral howled as his arms were almost torn from their sockets. Toby turned and ran, not wishing to spend another second fighting the freak. Viral clawed and hooked Toby’s jacket, trying to pull him back, but the material dissolved under his touch and fell off Toby—who fled.
The Enforcers stopped shooting, as they finally figured out the bad guys from the good guys.
“Boy, come on! Time to go!” shouted Worm.
Worm’s shout stopped Viral from pursuing Toby. More Enforcer bullets whizzed around him, causing him to retreat to the safe folds of Trojan’s cape.
Basilisk hauled himself up and limped toward Trojan, but his leg gave way and he stumbled. He reached out—and suddenly felt a searing pain around his midriff as Pete wrapped both flaming hands around him and plucked him up like a toy. Basilisk’s arms and legs flailed uselessly.
Basilisk watched with fury as Trojan wrapped her cape around Viral and Worm. She looked at him one last time with a hint of regret. Then her cape whirled to cover herself. Basilisk watched as it shrank into a point in space and vanished.
Basilisk howled in frustration. They had succeeded in freeing the one key component to their plan—but had abandoned their mastermind.
A New Perspective
Pete rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He was feeling exceptionally irritated at the latest turn of events and was releasing his anger at whoever dared speak to him.
When the villains vanished from Diablo Island, the Enforcers had ceased fire and started to yell to Pete to surrender Basilisk to them. Pete was still pumping fire from his body and standing a good six feet tall, holding Basilisk in a tight bear hug that miraculously didn’t burn him to a crisp. But try as he might, Pete couldn’t deactivate his powers and the more stressed he felt, the more spikes of fire leaped from his body in a threatening manner.
Toby looked nervously at Emily and Lorna. They all shared the same thought—it wasn’t going to be long until the Enforcers fired again. Toby scanned the guards who circled them on the courtyard walls. Every rifle was slowly being raised. He took a split second to reach a decision.
“Let’s get out of here!” Toby yelled as he yanked back his sleeve and thumbed the teleport button on the wrist pad Mr. Grimm had given them.
The world flashed brilliantly and then they were standing in a field with the sun sinking on the horizon. Toby could see the lights of their hometown below, and when he turned to the others he blinked at the double unexpected surprise.
First, Basilisk lay unconscious on the ground, his cape still smoldering. Toby had automatically assumed the bracelet would teleport just them; he hadn’t expected the supervillain to accompany them, even though Pete was holding him. The second surprise was to see Pete had still not returned to normal. It was a bizarre sight to watch a flaming giant fall to his knees, trying not to throw up from the dizzying effect of the teleportation. Even transformed, teleportation was an experience Pete just couldn’t get used to.
Emily and Lorna could only watch as the flames flickered from Pete and lit the grass around him. Toby joined them in stamping out the fires that were popping up, and they shouted at him to calm down and try to kill his power.
It took a few minutes for Pete to relax. He tried to douse the flames by rolling in a rain puddle, but the liquid vaporized in a cloud of steam. It wasn’t until he sat down and took a deep breath that the flames fizzled out and he shrank back to normal size.
But that still left the unconscious supervillain. Pete and Toby used their belts to bind his hands together and hoped he wouldn’t wake up anytime soon. Pete was about to pull the fiend’s hood off—but Toby stopped him, reminding them all of Basilisk’s petrification powers. Instead Pete tied his jacket over Basilisk’s head as extra security.
It took all four of them to carry Basilisk, and the going was slow as they crossed the fields. Emily had tried to invoke some kind of superstrength, but it appeared that their powers were lying dormant for the time being.
The next problem was what to do with Basilisk. Pete and Toby both agreed that they could put him in Toby’s garage, at least for a couple of hours, and gag him so that he wouldn’t alert Toby’s parents—but Lorna was adamantly against the idea. Toby was surprised at his sister’s reaction and assumed the thought of having a supervillain in the house terrified her.
Emily’s garage was in constant use.
That left Pete, who pointed out that his family didn’t even have a garage, let alone a car. Toby knew that they had a large shed, though, which Pete’s parents never used. Pete had flat out refused—but eventually he gave in to his friends’ constant pressure, even though he felt it was borderline bullying.
An hour later, Pete found himself in his dark shed with nothing but a flashlight. Basilisk was still unconscious, now with a sack over his head, and a gag around that. He was bound with a thick electrical extension cable they had used instead of rope. Pete was angry that his friends had predictably all made excuses to return home, leaving him alone to guard the prisoner.
He sat, stewing in his own misery and rage. From here he could hear shouting coming from the open kitchen window of his house. Yet again his parents were fighting. It had become a regular thing, and he was finding it harder and harder to ignore. Even though they stopped shouting if he was in the room, he could feel the bitter tension between them. He decided that being cooped up in a shed with a captive supervillain was better than facing the wrath of his parents.
Toby was going to lend Pete his cell phone, but discovered that he had lost it in the tussle with Viral. Lorna volunteered her phone in case Pete needed any help. Now he stared at the screen, wondering if he should call Toby to chat about something to relieve the boredom, but decided against it. If anything, finding Hero.com had weakened their bond of friendship.
Access to Hero.com was a constant sticking point. Pete was also starting to resent Toby’s automatic assumption that he was team leader. When Pete had suggested creating a team name and a set of superhero costumes, Toby had been the first to shoot the idea down. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it became that Hero.com was not a gift—it was a curse, ruining friendships and placing them constantly in danger.
