“Well, that’s the last of them,” Dylan said as she helped a family of four onto the slide. “Isabella and Lucy, you go next, then Scarlett and I will follow you down.”
Isabella and Lucy climbed onto the ice slide and scooted down to the bottom, then Dylan turned to Scarlett and gave her a huge hug.
“It’s so good to see you,” he said. “You took a brave risk going undercover here.”
“Ah it was nothing, you’re the ones who turned up and saved the day.”
She smiled up at Dylan as he brushed her black fringed bob off her face. Then just as Scarlett was starting to forget they were in the middle of a mission, she heard a scream from the world below.
“What was that?” she said as she poked her head through the hole.
“Not what, who?” Dylan said. He pointed at a group of four teenagers, who had superpowers judging by the light shows, bombs and fire they were creating. “It looks like we’ve got company.”
Chapter 2
Scarlett watched in horror as Jay used his super speed to outrun a blast of light, which was fired at him by a brown-haired girl she’d never seen before. Whoever this newcomer was, she had superpowers that involved throwing some kind of light blasts. She and the other three teenagers were dressed in dark grey uniforms and they were doing a good job of attacking Jay, Alex, Neelam, Lucy, Isabella, Aaron and the remaining half of the workers.
“We could kinda use your help down here,” Jay shouted up to Scarlett and Dylan.
“Coming!” Dylan yelled back. He grabbed Scarlett’s hands and leapt onto the ice slide, ready to join the fight.
“Is it just me,” Scarlett said, “or do those uniforms look remarkably like the ones Goulden made us wear three years ago when he first captured us?”
“Super Soldiers,” Dylan said in disbelief as they reached the bottom and raced over to the crowd. “Of course.”
“Look,” she said. “And unless I’m mistaken, the strong guy over there is Harvey, who attacked us a few months ago, and that is our old friend, Ethan.” She pointed at a blond teenager with a floppy fringe, who was producing small, spherical bombs.
Dylan stopped in his tracks. “You’re right.” He looked stunned. “So that’s what Goulden had planned when he kidnapped him.”
Scarlett shook her head in disgust. Adam Goulden was the Prime Minister of the UK and he was a power-hungry, evil monster of a man. Several years ago, he’d tried to turn Scarlett, Dylan and their friends into his personal army of ‘Super Soldiers’, but they’d escaped and he’d been after them ever since. There was no time to dwell on that now though, they had to concentrate on getting the remaining workers to safety.
They ran straight towards the action to find Lucy fighting the new light-throwing girl. The two girls were evenly matched as they fired light blasts and lightning at each other and neither of them looked close to winning the stand-off anytime soon.
“Give it up, Lucy,” the girl said. “You’ll lose in the end. I’m Phoebe by the way.”
As soon as Scarlett heard Phoebe say Lucy’s name, she knew for sure that Goulden had sent this team of villains and there was no way she was letting this one hurt Lucy. She telekinetically lifted the girl in the air and flung her as far as she could physically manage.
“You OK?” she asked Lucy.
Her friend nodded. “Fine, just a bit thrown off balance by the sudden attack, and how the hell did she know my name?”
“I think they’re Goulden’s new Super Soldiers. Recognise Ethan over there?”
“No way!”
As they turned to stare at Ethan, they saw Jay running a young girl out of the way of their former friend and Alex frantically teleporting as many people as he could away in groups of 10-20 at a time.
“Let’s cover Alex’s back,” Scarlett said. “That will allow him to help as many people as possible.”
Over the next ten minutes, Scarlett, Lucy and Jay worked hard to fend off their attackers so their teleporter friend could take the former slaves to safety. She focussed on repeatedly throwing Ethan as hard as she could without hurting him whilst simultaneously deflecting any bombs he threw. Meanwhile, Lucy hit Harvey, the strong boy, with her lightning and Jay used his powers of speed to rush people out of harm’s way.
In the midst of all this, Scarlett had no time to check where the rest of her team or the other new Super Soldiers were, but she assumed that they too were locked in battle and hoped Dylan, Neelam, Aaron and Isabella were OK.
A flash of light appeared as Alex teleported back from his latest journey. “Well, that’s most of them, now we just need to get to the last dozen people who are that side of the yard.”
He pointed about 100 feet to their left, where the rest of their group were fighting Phoebe and another new face: a boy who created fire.
“Then let’s head over there,” Scarlett said. “We’ll distract the attackers, you get the last workers out of here and Lucy and Jay, you cover our backs and keep Ethan and Harvey at bay.”
As they approached, the new boy threw flames at Scarlett. Luckily, Dylan whooshed a puddle up in the air and turned the fire into ice in the nick of time. She shot Dylan a thankful smile and flung their opponent as far as she could, but he quickly dusted himself down and ran back at them. This time his attention was focussed on Dylan.
“I don’t think we’ve been introduced,” he said. “I’m Hayden. Goulden said you were good, but let’s see you try to freeze this.”
He produced a blast of fire that was ten times bigger and stronger than the last one and launched it straight at Dylan. Scarlett knew there was no way Dylan could grab enough water to fight a giant flame like that, so she used her boosting power to help him out. “Produce ice from thin air, produce ice from thin air,” she whispered as she willed him to fight back.
Dylan raised his hands and made a huge sheet of ice shoot in his opponent’s direction. His powerful ice and Hayden’s fire met in the middle, but Hayden retaliated by making his flames even stronger. Dylan responded by producing more ice, causing the beam of fire to retreat back towards the boy until the ice punched him in the chest and knocked him to the floor.
“Isabella!” he shouted. “Get over here and time freeze this guy in time before he gets back up.”
“Yes, boss,” the redhead said as she ran to his defence, but suddenly the girl fell to her knees. “I can’t,” she muttered feebly. “I can’t do it.”
“Of course you can,” he said. “You’re more than capable of putting one person on pause and you know it. Don’t lose confidence now.”
“What’s the point? We’ll only lose.” Isabella looked beaten as she put her head in her hands and burst into tears.
“Something’s not right,” Scarlett said. “She’s usually more confident than this.”
Suddenly, a girl with long black hair stepped out from behind a battered, white van to the right of them.
“I’m sorry I’m late to the party,” she said. “The team were in such a rush to get here that they left without me.”
“Mallory?” Scarlett said. Along with Isabella, the girl was one of 10 super-powered teenagers they’d freed from this very workhouse three months earlier. “Since when did you switch to Goulden’s side? I thought you hated him.”
Mallory didn’t reply, she simply smiled sadistically at Scarlett as she put her super power, which made her victims feel a crushing sense of despair, into action. Scarlett felt overwhelmed with sadness as a grey cloud of misery descended upon her. It was hard to fight the despondency as negative thoughts flooded her brain.
“No,” she said. “I won’t let you beat me.”
She held her head as she battled the destructive emotions and willed herself to stay positive. She felt detached from the rest of the world, but she could sense Dylan grabbing her hand and willing her to break free.
“Neelam!” he said. “We need you.”
The telepath dashed to their aid and reached into Mallory’s mind, ordering her to leave Scar
lett alone. When that didn’t work, Neelam sent a psychic blast of pain into Mallory’s mind, causing her to scream in agony and fall to the floor.
“Brutal,” Dylan said. “I’ve never seen you hurt someone like that before.”
Neelam looked shocked herself. “I was desperate to help Scarlett.” She turned to her friend. “Are you OK?”
“Yes, thanks to you.”
Scarlett smiled appreciatively, then turned to her left as a bright flash of light signalled Alex’s return. He had now teleported away all of the slaves and Phoebe was lying defeated on the floor, beaten along with Mallory and Hayden.
“That’s it,” he said. “I dropped the last ones off in a suburb of Nottingham.”
“Good job, Alex,” Dylan said. “Then it’s time for us to get out of here.”
He beckoned Lucy and Jay over to the group, then all eight of them linked hands as Alex teleported them away, leaving their attackers behind.
They reappeared in their back garden in Highgate, north London with a flash of light. As usual, the group looked around to make sure no one had seen them pop up from nowhere, but they seemed to be safe.
“That was a close one,” Jay said with a nervous laugh.
“Tell me about it,” Dylan said as they walked towards the large, Edwardian house they called home. “I wasn’t expecting Goulden to send a new team of Super Soldiers after us today, that’s for sure.”
“How did he even know we were there?” Lucy asked.
“Maybe an alarm was raised when we started busting people out of there,” Scarlett said.
“Yeah, Mallory seemed to suggest that they’d rushed there in a hurry,” Isabella said. “I can’t believe that she’s turned to Goulden’s side.”
Jay placed a protective hand on the new girl’s shoulder. While the rest of them had naturally developed their powers a few years before, Isabella and Mallory were part of a group of normal humans who’d recently been experimented on by Prime Minister Goulden, which resulted in them having superpowers.
Scarlett’s group had freed them three months ago, but while Isabella joined their team, Mallory chose to go it alone. Two other experimentees, Casey and Stan, joined a rival group of super teens and Heather, Mason and Elijah went into hiding with their families.
“Mallory has probably been brainwashed by Goulden,” Jay told her. “There’s no way she’d willingly fight for him after the way he toyed with you all to give you powers.”
“He’s right,” Dylan said. “She hated the PM as much as any of us did. I’m certain he’s got to her, just like he has to our old friend, Ethan.”
“It was weird seeing him on that team,” Neelam said. “I’m not surprised after Goulden turned him to his side with a brainwashing drug though. No doubt, Mallory’s had a dose of the same medicine. Literally. Harvey, Phoebe and Hayden must have been given powers and brainwashed too.”
“Goulden is evil,” Scarlett said as she unlocked the back door.
Just then, a boy jumped out on them from the alley at the side of the house, causing her to yelp and leap into the air with fright.
“Finally, you’re home,” he said. “I’ve been waiting here for hours.” He grabbed Isabella by the shoulders with a great deal of urgency.
“Mason?” she said. “What are you doing here? I thought you were lying low with your family.”
“I had a vision,” he said. The distraught and panicked look on his face made it clear that it hadn’t been a good one. “A vision that is bad news for us all.”
Chapter 3
Scarlett opened the back door and pushed Mason inside. The rest of the teenagers quickly followed, then she glanced through the door window to double check no one was watching and locked it firmly behind them. Mason’s mysterious announcement had made her a little jumpy.
“Come in,” she said. “You must be freezing if you’ve been waiting around all day.”
Mason nodded. “It is a bit chilly out there.” He laughed and shivered in jest as they all walked into the kitchen.
“What did you see?” Isabella asked him.
She stepped in front of the rest of the teens to be by her friend’s side. Mason’s power allowed him to see the future, although he only had fleeting visions rather than seeing exactly how the days ahead would pan out. Scarlett shuddered to think what vision he might have had that included all of them. Whatever it was, it had obviously spooked him out.
“Goulden,” he said.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Jay said. “He’s usually up to something.”
“What was he doing?” Dylan asked.
“Well, it was sketchy; first I saw a bunch of his uniformed men ambushing Casey and Stan and those two teens they joined up with.”
“Toshiko and Andrew. They helped us to free you, they were part of our team until a couple of years ago.”
Toshiko, Andrew, Alex, Ethan and Sasha had left Dylan’s group because the teenagers had different ideas about how they should achieve things. While Dylan preferred the moralistic, non-violent approach, Andrew wanted to take Goulden down using any means possible, even if that meant killing someone. Alex had now returned to the original group, Ethan had been kidnapped by Goulden and Sasha had been killed.
“Yeah, those two. The men ambushed the four of them and bundled them into a van. I didn’t see Goulden, but my senses know he was behind it; especially after my second vision.”
“Which was?” Scarlett said. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer.
“Goulden personally helping his men to kidnap all of you here at this house. The vision was detailed and lasted a couple of minutes. It’s scary how realistic it was.”
He hung his head in dismay.
“Go on,” Dylan urged.
“I saw you and Scarlett walk in the door to a green living room, only to be attacked by five men. They grabbed Isabella and the blond brother and sister.” He nodded over at Lucy and Aaron. “Scarlett tried to overpower the men, but they fought back and…”
“And…?” Scarlett said. She didn’t like the sound of this.
“You were killed... then Dylan collapsed to the floor in tears and the other three teleported into the room.” He pointed at Neelam, Jay and Alex. “You were all so in shock that the men had no trouble capturing you. They took you outside to a van where Goulden was waiting and I’ve never seen him look so happy.”
Mason stared forlornly at the floor as he finished talking, then glanced up at the group with an apologetic look on his face. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this.”
No one else said a word. After all, what could you say to news like that?
The ticking of the clock on the wall cut through the awkward silence as Scarlett looked around the room. Jay was uncharacteristically speechless, Neelam was fighting to blink back tears, Lucy and Aaron were looking at each other in horror, while Isabella had gone pale with shock. Alex, who Scarlett had been friends with for years, struggled to find something to say, but no words came out. Meanwhile, Dylan was standing at the kitchen window staring at the outside world. His body language was a dead giveaway to her, she knew he was hurting inside.
Scarlett walked over to Dylan and wrapped her arms around his chest. “I’m not going anywhere. It’s only a vision; a warning that we can use to our advantage not a set-in-stone prediction of the future. Isn’t that right Mason?”
He nodded. “That’s the way I understand it to work, which is why I came to warn you. I’ve had visions of things happening before and avoided them coming true, so I’m hoping that’ll be the case here too.”
“See,” Scarlett said. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
She knew Dylan would worry though, especially after the way Goulden killed his family in a bus explosion and blamed it on terrorists three years ago.
“Yeah, you’re right,” Dylan conceded as he turned around to face her.
She ruffled his wavy, brown hair playfully to put him at ease, but she knew he was still tearing himself up ins
ide.
“So, what now? Do we wait for Goulden to come and attack or do we take this fight to him?”
“I was planning to warn Stan and Casey’s team. My visions suggested that they were attacked first, so we could save them and get their help at the same time.”
Dylan nodded. “I agree with Mason.”
“They’ll never help us,” Jay said with a dismissive laugh.
“They might do,” Dylan said. “We worked well as a team last time we were all together. While we might have different views on how to go about it, we share the same common goal of taking down Goulden. We should lend them a hand, I couldn’t live with myself if they were hurt after we received this warning.”
“They might be our enemies these days, but they used to be our friends,” Neelam said. “Dylan’s right, we have to help them.”
“OK,” Jay sighed.
“Is everyone else in?” Dylan asked.
Scarlett, Lucy, Aaron, Isabella and Alex nodded.
“OK, let’s go then. Alex, can you provide the transport?”
“Sure thing, boss,” he said as he peered through his floppy, brown fringe. Alex took hold of Isabella and Lucy’s hand and they in turn reached out to the rest of the group. “Let’s go.”
A second later, the nine of them appeared in an alleyway next to Andrew and Toshiko’s house in Camden. Alex aimed to pick quiet spots to teleport to so they wouldn’t arouse suspicion. On the occasions someone did see them, Neelam’s telepathy came in useful and made people conveniently forget all about it. Meanwhile, Lucy habitually wiped the CCTV everywhere they went so no one could keep track of their actions.
“I feel sick,” Mason said as they arrived with a flash of light.
Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains Page 2
