Scarlett felt enraged with Goulden for what he’d done to their friends. She wanted to fly straight at him, but they had to approach this battle carefully. Even she knew being reckless wasn’t wise here.
Unfortunately, their new criminal comrades didn’t agree.
The Echidna and her men jumped out of their cars, slamming the doors with purpose, then ran straight towards Goulden’s group.
“Come on then,” The Echidna said. “Let’s save the world or whatever you superhero kids call it.”
Chapter 25
Scarlett’s stomach flip-flopped as The Echidna and her five men leapt over the stone wall and ran towards the planes. She’d wanted more time to prepare herself for the battle ahead, but now she had no choice but to follow them. Was this how Dylan and the others felt when she charged off into the action? No wonder they told her off.
“Well, here goes,” she said to the group. “The hardest thing will be fighting our friends, but we must stay focussed, fend them off gently and concentrate our efforts on Goulden and the aircraft. Right?” They nodded. “Those planes will be carrying the devilpox weapons, so we must stop them taking off. Failure is not an option.”
She took a deep breath, then led the way across the green fields. In the few months that Scarlett had been part of this gang, they had run into many battles, but this time it felt more important. There was too much at stake and for the first time since Mason told her about his vision, she was worried that she was going to die. Well if that was her fate, then so be it. There was no better cause than saving the lives of others.
She assessed the scene before them as they ran. There were three pale blue planes with propellers, which looked a bit like the old war ones she’d seen at air shows. Two men were loading equipment on-board while Goulden stood watch and she could see the smug, satisfied grin on his face from here.
The men were so engrossed in their work that they hadn’t noticed The Echidna’s gang racing towards them, or Scarlett’s own group trailing behind. One of the plane engines was turned on and its propeller was whirring so loudly that it was unlikely Goulden could hear them either. At least they had the element of surprise on their side.
The Echidna’s group weaved their way between two of the planes and ambushed Goulden’s men, wrestling them to the ground. As her men took care of his heavies, The Echidna ran towards the Prime Minister, but the Super Soldiers got in the way and engaged her in battle instead, while Goulden strolled off out of harm’s way.
Scarlett was right next to the planes now, so she couldn’t hear a word anyone was saying over the loud, whirring sound of the propeller and engine. Her black bob was blowing in the wind and the noise was so deafening it made her feel dizzy. She steadied herself and took another look around. She saw that one of the planes was unattended and slowly snuck off in that direction. If she could get on-board and shut it down, that would be one down and two to go. She assumed all three would be carrying the biological weapons towards the city.
“I’m going this way,” she said through Neelam’s mind link. “Dylan, can you help me take that end plane out of action? Everyone else, cover our backs. Try to lie low and delay fighting our own people for as long as possible.”
“Sure thing,” Dylan replied. “See you over there.” He didn’t seem too bothered by the fact she’d taken over his leadership for this mission, which was good.
As Scarlett crept round the other two planes, she hoped Goulden’s men would be so distracted by The Echidna’s gang that she and Dylan could take out the third jet unnoticed. She sidled up next to the aircraft, which seemed much larger up close, and checked it out. She opened the door with her mind, jumped inside, then offered a hand down to help Dylan up. There was only enough room for them to crouch down inside the plane, so they crawled to the back to check out a huge pile of white briefcases.
“Do you reckon these are the devilpox bombs?” she said.
They were some distance from the noise of the running plane now, so it was easier for them to hold a conversation.
“Must be. Well, some of them at least.”
“Shall we destroy them?”
“One: I don’t know how to and two: wouldn’t that risk triggering them and releasing the devilpox? It won’t be safely frozen anymore.”
“Oh yeah. Probably.”
How were they going to destroy the devilpox without releasing it? So much had happened today that they hadn’t had chance to do research and make plans.
“Well, if we can’t destroy the weapons, we can at least stop the plane flying,” she said. “Where’s the engine?”
Dylan stared at her incredulously. “I can’t even fix a pushbike and you’re asking me about aircraft engines.”
She rolled her eyes at his insolence, then crept towards the cockpit, opened the door and glanced around, hoping that inspiration would strike. And thankfully, it did.
“Don’t worry, I’ve had another idea. You can freeze the controls instead.”
Scarlett took Dylan’s hand and helped him create ice, which he directed at the cockpit until he’d encased the instrument panel in a mini glacier. That should put the plane out of action. When he let loose like that, she wondered if he would grow strong enough to freeze the whole world one day. It scared her how powerful they were becoming, even if she was helping Dylan with her boosting skills.
Outside the window, she noticed their friends were now involved in the fighting and Neelam was in trouble.
“We’d better get back out there,” she said to Dylan.
She flew out of the door and straight at the action, where she could see Neelam was struggling to dodge Hayden’s fiery blasts. She used her mind to hurl him away from her friend, then scooped Neelam up from the ground.
“My heroine!” Neelam said in her mind with a laugh. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Scarlett didn’t have time to stand around and joke with her friend. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied two men coming her way, but a simple wave of her hand threw them back telekinetically. A quick headcount told her everyone was OK; Lucy was throwing out some devastating lightning and Alex was teleporting himself out of the line of fire. Meanwhile, The Echidna had broken free from the throng and was running towards Goulden, who was standing some distance away and talking on his mobile phone.
“Goulden!” The Echidna shouted.
Scarlett couldn’t hear the rest because she too close to the noisy plane, so she flew towards the action. The Echidna threw off her mask, let her green hair tumble down over the shoulders of her black outfit, then pulled a knife from her utility belt and held it to Goulden’s throat.
“We have unfinished business,” Scarlett could now hear her saying. “Look what you did to me. You destroyed my life, you murdered my family and now I’m going to kill you.”
Scarlett knew she should stop The Echidna. Just yesterday, she would have rushed to save Goulden, believing that he didn’t deserve to be killed, but today she couldn’t be so sure. She wrestled with her conscience, but before she could come to a decision, Goulden plucked a syringe from his pocket and jabbed The Echidna in the arm. Scarlett assumed it was the same brainwashing drug he’d used on her friends.
“Silly, foolish girl! You won’t kill me, you’ll work for me.”
He glared at Scarlett as he pushed The Echidna aside. “Ah, I see your little gang has arrived, Miss Shortt. I hope my soldiers aren’t giving you too much trouble. It’s very satisfying watching you fight each other. Can’t you try a little harder and throw a few killer blows in there?”
He laughed like a twisted Roman emperor who loved watching the humans and lions fight each other. Misery and destruction were the only things that brought him happiness.
“We won’t hurt them.” She stared at him defiantly.
Goulden shrugged his shoulders. “Do. Don’t. I don’t care, so long as you keep out of my way for the next hour.” He gave Scarlett a dismissive wave and turned to The Echidna. “Now,
join my Super Soldiers and help them finish these children off.”
He looked smug, but The Echidna gave him an even more satisfied grin as she pulled a pouch of syringes from her utility belt and jabbed one into her arm. “Never! I have an antidote; you can’t control me.”
“Boss,” one of The Echidna’s men shouted. “We got a plane.” He was leaning out of an aircraft as one of the other henchmen drove the jet across the field and started to take off.
“You coming?” a third man yelled down to The Echidna over the roar of the engine.
The gang boss took one last look at Goulden, then ripped a small metal device from her belt. “You’ll keep,” she said, before flinging the gadget at the plane. A silver zip line extended from her belt until a metal claw at the other end clung to the jet, then she swiftly climbed up the line and hauled herself inside.
Once she was on-board, the plane soared high into the sky, but they weren’t heading towards Manchester; they flew in the opposite direction and over the hills of the Peak District. They’d deserted Scarlett and her friends to make a getaway to somewhere far from the attack zone. Two of The Echidna’s men ran after the plane, waving in desperation. The Echidna had left them behind too and there was no way she was coming back for them.
Scarlett felt angry at the betrayal, but she forced herself to stay focussed. She glanced back towards her friends, who were busy fighting Goulden’s men while simultaneously keeping the Super Soldiers at bay. Being attacked by friends they didn’t want to hurt was making everything a hundred times more difficult.
“I’ve had enough of this,” she thought.
She glanced down and noticed The Echidna had dropped her antidote syringes on the floor. Two had broken, but three were still intact, so she telekinetically flung them at Isabella, Jay and Aaron. Jay dodged one with his super speed, but the other two needles hit their targets perfectly, injecting Aaron and Isabella in the arm.
Aaron, who had been about to throw a laser ball at his own sister, stared at his hands in disbelief, while Isabella was so in shock that she froze Jay to the spot. Scarlett flew over, telekinetically grabbed them both and flew them away from the Super Soldiers.
“You were brainwashed by Goulden,” she said. “There’s no time to explain right now. Isabella, if anyone goes near those planes, you freeze them. Got it?”
“I think it’s a bit too late for that,” Aaron said, pointing behind Scarlett.
She turned round to see Goulden and two of his men closing the door to one of the planes. Goulden leaned out for a second and pointed at something behind Scarlett before giving her a smug wave and slamming the door shut. The aircraft reversed, then drove straight towards the road and took off, soaring over the skies towards Manchester.
“Noooo!” Scarlett yelled. Her voice could be heard clearly now because the only plane left was switched off. “We have to follow him.”
As she searched her brain for a fool-proof plan, two of Goulden’s men shot at her and Toshiko came somersaulting over.
“Enough!” She took Isabella’s hand to enhance her power and the redhead froze Toshiko, Ethan, Andrew, Hayden, Mallory and Goulden’s men in time. Scarlett breathed a sigh of relief as the fighting stopped and the field fell silent. Finally, she could hear herself think.
Then she heard a loud clanging noise behind her. She turned around. The truck that had been parked away from the battle was now open at the back and metal robots were marching out of it. Scarlett stared at them in disbelief. She had to be seeing things; this couldn’t be happening.
But it was.
A dozen robots had now left the vehicle and were stomping towards the group. That was why Goulden had pointed behind Scarlett as he left; he was unlocking the truck to launch one final attack that would keep them at bay. It was like a spiralling nightmare that refused to end.
The human-sized machines were very basic and you could see the wires and joints that made up their bodies and limbs. They were like metallic skeletons with their stripped-down design and menacing green eyes.
Scarlett flung two of them to the floor, but they got straight back up and continued marching towards her. Dylan tried throwing three more, but his powers had no effect.
“They’re robots,” she pointed out. “No water to control here.”
As Dylan cursed his stupidity, a robot lifted its arm and shot a laser at him. These things were armed with guns too. Isabella tried freezing them, but nothing happened. Her powers didn’t work on the machines either.
“Alex, take Neelam and Isabella out of harm’s way,” Dylan said. “Your powers can’t help here, so stay safe in case we need back up.”
Lucy and Aaron blasted the machines with their lightning and laser balls, but the robots shrugged off the attacks and kept coming, firing relentless blasts from their arms as they walked.
“I can’t shut them down, blast them or anything,” Lucy said as she ran out of the line of fire. “They’re like super-advanced Detectobots.”
Scarlett ducked to avoid the robot’s laser blasts and tried using her telekinesis to hold them back and switch off their guns, but nothing worked. She was stunned that even Lucy, who could control any machine, wasn’t powerful enough to stop them. Not on her own anyway. Scarlett had a plan.
She grabbed Dylan’s hand. “Make it rain.”
“Rain?”
“You did it before when I boosted your power and drowned a Detectobot. Do it again only over a much larger space so you soak all those machines.”
“I dunno if water will work. They’re unstoppable.”
“Just do it!” she shouted.
Dylan flinched at her outburst, then accessed Scarlett’s power to amplify his own. Suddenly, a huge dark cloud appeared above them and the heavens opened, soaking the whole field wet through with rain.
The machines slowed down, but only slightly. They still weren’t beaten.
“Lucy!” Scarlett said. “Fry them with everything you’ve got.”
The blonde pushed her soaking wet hair from her face, then let loose at the robots with a barrage of lightning blasts. The machines faltered and as she kept the pressure on, they started to fizzle and crackle. Sparks were flying everywhere. Scarlett flew over to Lucy to enhance her power and their efforts finally paid off when the machines came to a whirring, screeching halt. They’d won.
The robots might have been impervious to the teenagers’ powers, but they couldn’t withstand the elemental battering that Lucy and Dylan had created. Tomorrow, the locals would think it was nothing more than another storm, they’d have no idea about the battle that had taken place here this evening.
If there was a tomorrow that is.
Scarlett turned to Dylan, Aaron and Lucy as the rain slowed down to a drizzle, while, Alex, Isabella and Neelam teleported back over from the other side of the field.
“We won that one, but we still need to stop Goulden,” Scarlett said. “And we don’t have much time. Anyone know how to fly a plane?”
“The final plane is broken,” Neelam said. “You froze it remember. I read Goulden’s men’s mind to find out how to fix it, but it’s beyond repair.”
“Damnit! What about the devilpox bombs?”
“I saw them moving loads of white cases onto the plane they took off in,” Alex said. “Was that it?”
“Yes,” Scarlett sighed. “That was it. What now?”
“You and I will have to fly after Goulden and take him on alone,” Dylan said.
“What about us?” Alex asked. “I can teleport.”
“You can only ’port to the ground and you’d be at risk from the devilpox there. Wait here where it’s safe, or better yet, teleport somewhere far away. We’ll meet you back at the hideout later if we pull this off.”
The tone of Dylan’s voice made it clear that these were instructions, not suggestions. There was no point arguing with him.
“Ready, Scarlett?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” She wasn’t, but when was anyone ready to fly to t
heir possible death?
“Good luck,” Lucy said, followed by awkward greetings from the others.
“You can do it,” Alex added.
“Yeah.” Dylan didn’t look convinced.
He took Scarlett’s hand and they hovered up into the air, only turning back once to give a nervous wave to their friends before they soared high into the sky towards Manchester.
“Looks like it’s you and me versus the world again,” Scarlett joked, trying to lighten the mood as they raced towards the city centre.
“Ha! I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Chapter 26
The low-lying orange sun bounced off the glass skyscrapers as Scarlett and Dylan flew closer to the city, giving the cold towers a warm, welcoming feel. Something looked different somehow, then Scarlett realised what it was: The Shield was in place now. The south west corner of the city centre was completely encased in a see-through dome.
She paused in mid-air for a second and admired it in awe. It was incredible to see such a large area framed like a tourist trinket.
“What’s wrong?” Dylan said. He stopped alongside her.
“Look.”
“What at?”
“That.”
Dylan squinted as he stared at the skyline, then flinched with shock.
“Oh! He’s really gone and done it then.”
“Yes, and that means he’s safe to drop his weapons, so we’d better get a move on.”
The pair quickened their flying pace for the last couple of miles of their journey, then started scanning the skies, hoping to spot Goulden’s plane as they neared the city centre, but he was nowhere to be seen. For a second, Scarlett wondered if they were too late, but people were still walking along on the streets far below. They looked like oblivious matchstick men from up here.
Scarlett hovered over a main road. Although it was rush hour, she could only see a few tiny cars making their way home, their headlights switched on to illuminate the now darkening streets ahead. Across Manchester, street lamps and building lights began to flicker into life, but they were all twinkling on the rich side of the city. The poorer parts would be plunged into darkness once the sun went down. If anyone lived until then, that is.
Out Of Time (Book 2): Heroes and Villains Page 19
