by Andy Briggs
An orderly led them to the waiting room where they were given some food in sterile plastic trays. Lorna didn’t like it; it tasted as if the flavor had been sucked from every molecule. She had retrieved her cell phone from Pete, and despite the freezing and dunking it had received, it had dried out and worked perfectly, even if the screen was now cracked. She was delighted to see that she had several voice-mail messages.
Lorna left the room to make a call and answered Toby’s questioning glance with: “Don’t worry; I’m not calling Mom and Dad.”
“So who are you calling?”
“A friend,” she mumbled, and quickly exited.
“Boyfriend,” Pete stated bluntly.
Toby didn’t feel like talking to Pete after his outburst. He stared at the ceiling and prayed that the Enforcers could capture or kill Worm and the others. If not, he and his friends were supposed to save the world from complete anarchy.
Toby couldn’t shake the feeling that the world was doomed.
* * *
Trojan and Viral swapped uneasy glances as they were rocked in their red velvet seats aboard the Nematode. Worm was at the controls and they could see nothing but black earth passing the bug-eyed windows and hear the occasional clang of rocks striking the bronze hull. They glanced back at Basilisk, who was strapped flat on the floor, like a piece of cargo.
“They’re not following,” Worm declared with some relief.
Less than an hour earlier Trojan and Viral had escaped from the burning control room by climbing down the side of the pyramid. They had rejoined Worm in the clearing and watched as an angry orange fireball ripped off the top of the pyramid.
“There goes our HQ,” said Trojan wistfully. “I kind of liked it.”
“Good riddance to my prison,” snapped Worm, who had only used the facility after Basilisk had convinced him that they required a base for operations.
With her powers recharged, Trojan had volunteered to search for Basilisk in the jungle. Quantum shifting on her own meant she could make more trips than if she had to take others. After fifteen minutes of fruitless hunting she had stepped out on a riverbank and discovered Basilisk washed up and surrounded by several dead crocodiles. She had carefully approached, aware that there were more of the reptiles lurking in the water.
Basilisk stirred, although he was covered in wounds and had lost a lot of blood. Sensing new prey, one crocodile leaped from the water and sprinted across the shore at a startling speed. Trojan had thrown her cape across Basilisk and they both reappeared next to the Nematode.
But then automatic gunfire had torn a line across the clearing between Viral and Trojan. Two black UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters circled around with Enforcers hanging from the doorways.
“Those stupid kids must have led them right to us!” Worm shouted as he raced toward the Nematode. Viral was several paces behind him as more gunshots peppered the tunneling machine.
“You bring the Big Guy in!” he called to Trojan.
She was about to respond when she was forced to throw her cape up as a solid shield, as bullets rained down around her.
“I can’t!” she screamed. “You’ll have to help me.”
Viral hesitated. His own skin was too valuable to risk on saving Basilisk, but the villain had masterminded his escape. And his plan for toppling the Hero Foundation was brilliant. Viral was many bad things, but he was not disloyal. Plus he was feeling attracted to Trojan, even though he knew that he didn’t stand a chance. What did he expect with a name like Viral? He was already thinking about rebranding himself once this was over.
He sprinted back to Trojan. “Grab his arm.”
They grunted with effort. Basilisk was much heavier than he looked, and both villains only had average strength. The Black Hawks hovered at opposite ends of the clearing as Worm powered up the Nematode.
“Hurry!” he called.
Viral saw muzzle flashes from the Enforcers and heard the gunfire over the sound of the thunderous helicopter rotors. Trojan threw her cape in front of them both to act as a shield.
“They’ve pinned us down,” she warned. “And my shield won’t last forever.”
Viral nodded—then jumped from behind the protective cape. In the two seconds he had to spare, he noticed that the Enforcers were all wearing bright yellow biohazard suits that protected them from his powers, but made them colorful targets.
Viral flicked his hands and a mist shot out, splattering across one of the Black Hawks. For a moment nothing happened, and he could see the Enforcers readying themselves for another strafing run. Then an orange patch appeared on the helicopter’s hull and quickly spread across the machine in every direction. The crew inside looked around as the metal exterior started to dissolve in a rusty hue.
In seconds the aircraft’s entire fuselage crumbled to rust—including most of the engine and rotors. The men inside found themselves sitting on seats that were no longer attached to anything—and fell into the jungle in a fine particle cloud of oxidized metals.
Viral turned to the other helicopter—but it sharply banked out of sight. With a grin he helped lug Basilisk into the Nematode. As soon as Trojan sealed the door, Worm accelerated and the machine burrowed beneath the earth.
Emily was sitting up in the hospital bed, cramming more chocolate into her mouth. The others sat around her. On Pete’s suggestion, they had all chipped in what little money they carried and bought Emily the get-well chocolates. Not that she needed them. Her cuts and bruises had vanished and she declared herself ready to leap back into action, until Pete whispered that she should play out her injuries a little longer as they were all tired and couldn’t face another mission outside.
Toby looked around the well-appointed ward with curiosity. Most of the curtains were drawn around the beds, so he had no idea who occupied them, but the ward was full. The nurses all wore pristine white uniforms with the Hero Foundation logo embroidered on them, and they busied themselves moving from bed to bed.
“What did they do to you?” Pete asked with curiosity.
Emily shrugged. “I dunno. When I woke up I had an IV in me, like that one.”
She pointed across to another bed, which had an IV suspended from a stand feeding the patient just beyond the curtains. The fluid inside was dirty green and Pete swore it was glowing slightly.
“Must be a regeneration power,” he mused.
“Whatever it is, it cured me. Healed my wounds, the doctors said. Apparently if you hadn’t gotten me here so fast, I would have been a goner.”
Pete mumbled, getting tongue-tied. “Yeah. For a minute there I was, uh, worried … you know … that … “
Emily beamed at him and he turned away as red as a beet. This was the first time any of them had been this close to death.
“I think we should stop doing all of this,” said Lorna, resolutely avoiding Toby’s glower. “It’s not right that we should be risking our lives. Like Pete said, we’re terrible.”
“I said we were a terrible team,” snapped Pete. “It doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy having the powers. Better than sitting at home staring at the wall and listening to constant—”
He shut up before he said arguing.
“It’s not worth dying for,” Lorna said firmly.
Toby stood up; he was angry at his sister’s defeatist attitude. “Then what is? We’ve been told we’re it. Without us out there trying to stop these villains destroying the Foundation, the world as we know it will be overrun!”
Lorna shook her head. “I don’t believe that.”
“You’ve seen the news! How can you ignore what’s going on?”
“I don’t believe that we’re the only ones who can stop this. I mean, who are we? We’re just a bunch of—”
“Kids?” said Toby. Lorna nodded. “I don’t care what Pete said.” He pointed a finger at Pete. “He’s wrong! We’ve been selected to have an opportunity, a duty, with these powers. And I think we should be out there helping as best we can.”
Lorna
opened her mouth to argue, but stopped when she felt Emily’s hand on hers.
“I have to agree, Lorn. Like Pete said, we enjoy doing it. Otherwise why bother, right? And we’re just getting the hang of all this, so we’re not going to be the best team there is. Not yet. But if we keep working together,” she glanced at Toby, “and have strong leadership, then I know we’ll be fine. Lorn, you said that you’d like to be famous with all these powers. How much more famous do you think you could get then as the girl who saved the world?”
Despite their frustration, Toby and Pete couldn’t help but smile. Trust Emily to touch Lorna’s vanity button.
“Em’s right,” said Pete. “Look at it this way, none of us died. In fact, Emily doesn’t have a scratch on her!”
Toby grinned, glad to see the old Pete back. “Exactly. No matter what, we’re in this together, as a team.”
“For now,” Pete said firmly.
The smile slid off Toby’s face. He’d been wrong. There was an unmistakable coolness to Pete’s attitude. He noticed that Emily had spotted it too but remained silent.
Lorna looked at the three of them and reluctantly nodded. “Okay. Count me in before we all start fighting again.”
Toby was relieved the argument had been stopped. “Don’t forget, Lorn, at the end of the day, we’re superheroes. We’re special.”
“Touching,” Mr. Grimm said from the end of the bed. Everybody jumped in surprise. They hadn’t seen or heard him approach. “It seems Miss Harper is fit and ready for active duty, is she not?”
Emily felt so good she couldn’t stop herself from grinning as she threw a mock salute.
The humor bypassed Grimm. “Excellent. Then you’re ready for more bad news. The Enforcers have failed. It’s now all up to you.”
* * *
Basilisk knew that he was dying, but he could prevent that. What really annoyed him most was the lousy timing of it. Aside from the brief hiccups, the scheme had gone according to plan, and the destruction of the Hero Foundation was within reach.
Before the meddlesome Downloaders had rescued their friend, Basilisk and Worm had been assessing the trouble across the globe. The organized attacks were a clear sign that the Council of Evil was taking advantage of the collapse of Hero.com to maximize chaos.
And for Basilisk, that was all for the best.
Once they had seized control of the Hero Foundation he would get Viral and Trojan to dispose of Worm. Then he could reinstate Hero.com under his own control, although he’d have to think of a suitable name change, and use it to recruit cannon fodder to strike at the Council of Evil.
If he lived that long.
Since his encounter with the schoolboy Jake Hunter, almost a month earlier, Basilisk had been feeling increasingly weak. His normal regeneration skills would have patched him up in twenty-four hours after Worm had taken him off his crumbling island. But he had been suffering for far too long now and suspected that it was time for him to regenerate again. Basilisk healed, at a genetic level, by stealing DNA from a victim to rebuild his own. He had done this to Jake Hunter, but now Basilisk knew he needed to do it again. He couldn’t take it from another Prime, such as Trojan, as that would cause severe reactions with his own superpowers.
When he came around aboard the Nematode he found the others looking at him with concern. Not for his well-being, of course, but because without the plan Basilisk carried in his head, they didn’t know what to do next. Plus, Trojan had started wondering aloud if they’d all be in trouble with the Council of Evil for aiding and abetting a known fugitive. That left them in a difficult position.
Basilisk’s breathing was laborious, and through cracked lips he insisted they return to the pyramid to retrieve something they had stored there.
Trojan entered the ruins while Viral kept a lookout. It didn’t take her long to find what Basilisk wanted. It was a small refrigeration unit that had been severely dented in the explosion, but its contents were still cold and intact.
She returned to the Nematode and Basilisk eagerly tore open the box and pulled out the frosted sterile containment flask. The flask opened with a pressurized hiss. Held inside was the small, perfectly preserved sample they had taken from Pete to study.
The others watched as Basilisk held it in the palm of his hand. His own skin started to rapidly grow around the sample, absorbing it into his body. It was as though he was a genetic vampire, feeding off the flesh of others.
Basilisk’s whole body convulsed as he processed the new DNA. For a second Trojan thought that he was having a seizure. She reached out a hand to help, but then stopped—Basilisk’s face was rippling like water, scars and wrinkles flattening out and shifting as they took on a new identity.
Bones crunched as they fortified themselves, and muscles rippled as he fed on the genetic characteristics of the tiny sample he had just absorbed. He felt stronger, rejuvenated. After a minute the convulsions stopped, and silence filled the Nematode.
“Man, are you okay?” asked Viral, who had been watching with professional interest.
Basilisk climbed out of the plush chair he sat in. His fingers crunched as he formed a fist.
“I feel great!” he exclaimed. “Now I feel I can take on the world!”
The others stared at him in surprise. Basilisk’s completely blue eyes shone with youth and his face had taken on a new shape. It was still older and scarred from centuries of genetic tampering, but there was an unmistakable familiarity about him.
Viral frowned. “You know, now you look like that geek, the prisoner we had with the glasses.”
* * *
Toby rubbed his tired eyes. The video images on-screen looped for the third time. They were surveillance cameras in Diablo Island Penitentiary, and what they showed was the beginning of a nightmare.
The prison had been badly damaged by the two previous escapes and there was no way it could resist a third assault. A gang of supervillains had teamed together to free their comrades held inside. Enforcers were stretched to a breaking point as they struggled to resist. The enemy forces were swelling with each prisoner they freed.
Mr. Grimm hadn’t looked away from the screen on his desk. “The damage is incalculable. Decades of evil tyranny are unleashed on the world again.”
“Shouldn’t we be doing something about this?” asked Pete.
“We can’t. If you try to deal with the escape at Diablo, that will leave the Foundation wide open. It’s imperative that you protect the headquarters. You must travel to Mongolia immediately.”
“Mongolia?” exclaimed Pete. “What’s there? Apart from … um … “
“That’s where the Foundation has relocated. Basilisk may try and paralyze the Hero satellite first, but—”
“You have your own satellite?” Pete blurted out.
“We have many things you don’t know about. If he uses Worm and Viral to take the satellite, then it won’t make any difference if we bring Hero.com online, as we will be unable to use it. The Foundation will still be defenseless.”
“How can Basilisk reach a satellite? He doesn’t have a spacecraft … does he?” asked Toby.
“Not as far as we know. But he’s resourceful. I have no doubt he has already thought of a way to get his team into orbit and infect the satellite. That is why you should go straight to the Foundation.”
The room fell silent. Mr. Grimm glanced at his watch as though he needed to be elsewhere. Lorna toyed with a small globe on Grimm’s desk and rotated it around so she could see Mongolia perched above China. Then an unlikely connection raced through her mind, a casual comment she’d heard recently. “Yaks!”
Toby frowned. “What?”
“Yaks … that’s what Mongolia has!”
“Big deal.”
She looked at Mr. Grimm with wide eyes. “We have to hurry. We’re not going to Mongolia! I think I know how Basilisk is going to bring down the satellite!”
Countdown to Extinction
Phase two was the one part of the plan tha
t was out of Basilisk’s control and relied on fate alone. It was also the one part of the plan that Worm didn’t want to have anything to do with. Basilisk briefly thought it was an ideal opportunity to get rid of him, but remembered that he would need Worm’s skills later.
The Nematode discreetly emerged from the ground a few miles from their target, and the four villains crouched low in the rocky terrain so they could get a clear view of the technological marvel in front of them. The space shuttle sat on its pad, vapors streaming from its multiple couplings as it was readied for launch. But this was no ordinary space shuttle.
The growing interest in space tourism meant that private investors had bought Russia’s scrapped Buran space shuttle. Originally developed in the 1970s as a direct rival to the American shuttle, the Buran looked similar. It was marginally larger, as it sat on a powerful Energia rocket. Only its four enormous boosters and tall fuel tank set it visibly apart from NASA’s vehicle.
The entire rocket sat on the launch pad in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, adorned with sponsorship logos. It housed four astronauts, or cosmonauts, as the Russians preferred, and two billionaires who had spent millions of dollars on their four-day holiday aboard the International Space Station. The launch had already been delayed because a herd of yaks had invaded the fertile launch area.
“Are you sure about this?” Viral said in a low voice. He looked paler than ever, if that was physically possible.
Basilisk shot him a look. “Surely you’re not frightened?”
“Of course not,” Viral lied, and smiled weakly at Trojan. He had to try to impress the girl. “I just thought there could be another way we could do this.”
“The satellite needs to be under our control and your powers only work in a one-hundred-foot radius. Even if we could get past the firewalls, there’s no way you could transmit your virus to the satellite. But if you’re close enough, Worm can get you directly into the system.”
