Ferdy released my belt and pushed past my body. Everything was turning inky black as I watched his hand probe the gap between the rocks.
I’ve failed him and failed myself. But I couldn’t give in to panic. I had to concentrate. Somehow bring air down from above into my mouth and lungs. But it was too late for that. All too late. The water rumbled around me. As the liquid pushed into my nose, I saw Ferdy shoving the two boulders aside. I raised an arm. Ferdy grabbed it and hauled me up after him. There was light. Air. The ceiling of a cave. Then I lay like a beached fish, coughing and spluttering and choking and spitting out salt water.
And breathing in air.
Glorious air.
My face pressed hard against the gritty rock face. We were inside a cave pointing out onto the ocean. I slowly became aware of briny seaweed. Tiny mollusks dotted the slimy rock face. A crab sidled out of sight as I vomited up saltwater. Closed my eyes.
Breathe, I thought. Breathe.
Finally, opening my eyes again, I saw the cave opened out onto a rock platform that followed the coast away into the distance. I rolled over to see Ferdy standing over me with a curious expression.
‘Ferdy.’ That got me nowhere. I spent the next minute vomiting up more seawater until I was able to speak again. ‘Ferdy. Did you move the rock?’
‘Rock?’
He picked up a boulder as large as a small cow and tossed it at the ocean beyond. It skipped fifty feet across the sea before sinking from sight. I staggered to my feet.
‘An octopus has three hearts,’ Ferdy said.
‘Really?’ I stared at where the boulder had disappeared beneath the waves. ‘How interesting.’
Ferdy not only had a super brain but also super strength. I spent the next few minutes telling him I had to leave for a while, but I’d be back later. He seemed to understand me. I considered telling him to be careful and not to talk to strangers, but—
Well, I was pretty sure Ferdy could look after himself.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I flew low over the landscape back towards The Agency complex, doing it just as Mister Brown had trained me. I had to stay low to keep off the radar. Coming into land near one of the external bunkers, I used my power to angle one of the cameras away from me. Then I used a hard clot of air to snap open the door.
Minutes later, I was making my way through the corridors of the main complex and across The Cavern. Administrative personnel and scientists were everywhere, but I was looking for one man. I was pretty sure that most of the staff had no idea what had been going on. How could they? The Agency worked like most secret organizations. Everything was on a need-to-know basis. There were a hundred projects taking place here at any one time.
But some people knew about The Alpha Project. They’d always known what was intended for us: the experiments—the abuse, the deaths—and one man had certainly known right from the start. I went to our dorm rooms first. I hoped to see the others before I went on the attack, but they were nowhere to be found. Disquiet seized me. They could be out partying. Or maybe they’d been sent on an impromptu training exercise.
Or maybe they’ve been ambushed like me.
Returning to The Cavern, I spotted Mister Jones stepping from an elevator. His eyes widened slightly when he saw me. It wasn’t much, but it was enough. I grabbed him and shoved him back through the elevator doors. They slid shut behind us.
‘You’ve known all along?’ I said. ‘Haven’t you?’
‘I don’t know what you—’
His reply was suddenly choked off.
I spoke calmly, though deliberately. ‘It’s hard to speak without air,’ I said. ‘The vocal cords don’t work. The lungs refuse to function.’ He tried to grab me, but I used my powers to force his arms down by his side. Hitting the emergency stop button, the elevator ground to a halt. ‘How long can the average person survive without air? The world record is seventeen minutes. How long can you last?’
Jones stared at me in horror as he struggled to breathe.
‘Will you answer my questions?’ I asked.
He nodded.
‘Really?’ I said. ‘And you’ll tell me the truth?’
A kind of pathetic horror came into his eyes. I released him, and he fell gasping to the floor. His hand reached for his jacket.
‘Don’t even think about it,’ I warned him. ‘I can crush you like an ant.’
I didn’t actually know if I could crush him like an ant, but it was a good line. He was almost crying. ‘What do you want?’ he asked.
‘Where is Twelve?’ I asked. ‘Where are my friends?’
‘They’re in the main lab on Level Fourteen.’
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know.’
I forced his arms back to his sides. ‘Please,’ he begged. ‘I really don’t know. I think he’s lost it. He said he needs to carry out more experiments, but—’
‘But—what?’
‘He’s not a scientist!’ Jones said desperately. ‘What can he be doing?’
What can he be doing?
Yep, that was the sixty-four million dollar question. What do you get when you combine an alien without ethics, a lab full of potent mixtures, and a collection of human guinea pigs? It was a horrifying thought. I hit the elevator button, and we descended into the earth.
The elevator drew to a halt, and the doors opened. I gripped Mister Jones by the arm and pulled him close. ‘We’re going for a walk,’ I told him. ‘If you make so much of a squeak, you’re going to be very sorry. Do you understand?’
‘Yes.’
‘Now take me to this lab.’
We made our way down the corridor. Two scientists passed by, giving us a long glance, but said nothing. If I’d been alone, alarm bells would have rung, but it was Mister Jones who got us through. He had clearance for just about every part of The Agency.
‘I want you to know I was against these experiments,’ he whined. ‘I’ve got kids of my own. Why would I want to harm—’
‘Shut up.’
He shut up. We reached the door of a lab, and Jones took out a swipe card with a shaking hand. The door clicked, and we entered. My friends—Brodie, Chad, Dan, and Ebony—were lying on lab tables. I released Jones and gripped Chad’s wrist. Thank goodness. A pulse. He was still alive. My eyes scanned the lab. There was equipment all around. The corners lay in darkness, but along one wall lay a row of coffin-like containers.
That’s where we were born.
Correction.
This is where we were reborn.
Twelve stepped from the shadows. He was laughing. It was a little high-pitched and strangely unsettling.
I swallowed my rage. ‘What have you done?’ I asked.
He ignored my question. ‘Do you know how long I’ve been watching your race?’ he asked. ‘I’ve been stuck on this insignificant little world for over two thousand years. For all that time, I watched your species, and I tried to steer you away from your animalistic natures. I watched your wars and your petty disagreements. I watched you kill and mutilate each other. And you know what I’ve realized?
‘There’s something…intoxicating about violence. The way you happily kill and mutilate each other. It’s strangely satisfying.’ He shook his head. ‘Oh, the other Bakari don’t share my beliefs. In fact, they’re in the process of having me replaced. Can you imagine? I’m returning home after two thousand years.’ He laughed again. ‘Guess what? I don’t want to go. I’m more human than Bakari now! But why be human when you can be superhuman? Can you imagine? A human who can kill and destroy with ease, tearing apart anything in his way?
‘I asked Doctor Richards to modify me—and he thought me mad! He and the other scientists stole you away to keep you safe. We only caught up with them again when we realized they were using Cygnus Industries—one of our safe houses—as a meeting point. But Typhoid was ahead of us. They wanted the secrets of The Alpha Project too.’
I had to get out of here with the others. ‘You have your form
ula,’ I said. ‘Just let us go.’
‘Don’t you understand?’ Twelve’s face twisted with rage. ‘We no longer have the formula! Richards destroyed it before he left! The remaining batches he mixed together so that we could never replicate it again.’ His face twisted again, this time into a sick smile. ‘All the formulas mixed together. Do you know what that means?’
Actually, no, and I didn’t care. Glancing over at Jones, I saw even he looked terrified. Not only had Twelve exceeded his authority, but also his reason. Somewhere along the line, he’d crossed the boundary between sanity and madness.
‘Did you really think we would leave such power in the hands of children?’ he asked.
Twelve curled his hand into a fist and held it out before him. He unfurled it and stared at his palm.
He’s completely lost it.
But then a tiny flame appeared in the palm of his hand. It grew into a white ball of fire, hot and bright in the dimly lit laboratory. Only then did I begin to understand what he’d done.
Oh no.
‘You’ve drunk some of the remaining formula,’ I said.
‘No.’ The alien began to laugh. ‘I’ve drunk all of it.’
Chapter Thirty-Nine
He flung the ball of fire at me, and I leaped to one side. It struck the wall behind me. Jones screamed and raced out the open door.
‘Run!’ Twelve thundered at his retreating figure. ‘Run and tell them a God now walks the Earth!’
He leaped over a table and cartwheeled over a bench. I jumped back. If he had everyone’s powers, then he also had Ebony’s transmutation ability. He could turn me to dust in a second. I created a force shield between us, and he collided with it. He pointed at me and tried pushing a jagged spear of ice through the shield.
He’s strong.
‘They will build a statue to me!’ he snarled.
I doubt it.
Struggling to push him back, I focused on removing his air supply. He gasped and gripped his throat. I leaped over a table and through the exit door. Fighting in the lab was only putting the others in danger. I needed to get him into the open. Racing down the corridor, I projected a shield behind me, but Twelve didn’t follow. Mister Jones was already gone. I jumped into an elevator and hit the button for The Cavern. There was plenty of room up there. At least I’d be able to maneuver—
The elevator shuddered violently. I peered down at my feet just as a fist slammed through the floor.
Twelve’s angry face appeared through the jagged tear.
‘You will obey me, child!’
I doubt it.
I sent a wall of wind at him that took out the entire floor. The elevator—or what remained of it—continued to rise. I then destroyed the ceiling and flew past the broken cable. Glancing down, I saw that Twelve had fallen several floors before punching a hole in the wall of the elevator shaft to stop his descent.
How do I stop this guy?
Reaching The Cavern level, I forced air between the shaft doors—just in time. A roar rushed up the shaft as I leaped through the gap, and a ball of white-hot flame missed me by inches. I heard an explosion and screaming. The ground shuddered. Fire alarms came to life.
I flew across a sea of machinery. The sight below me was terrifying. There were scientists and administrative staff everywhere. They had no idea what was on the way. Another explosion came from the shaft. As I landed, I saw an enormous piece of machinery fly through the air and slam into a group of scientists.
No!
I took to the air again. I had to take Twelve out as quickly as possible. He was utterly out of control. Whereas I didn’t want to harm anyone, he had no such morals. He stalked across The Cavern, firing at anything in his path. Building up a blast of air, I readied it to fire just as he spotted me. He raised a hand, and then a haze of white flew toward me.
Ice.
I struggled to break free, but it had wholly encased me.
Cold. It’s so cold.
It was like being inside a frozen coffin. Even before I hit the floor, the block of ice was already several feet thick. This was almost worse than drowning; I was unable to move at all. It pressed against my skin. My face. Even my eyeballs. I lay on my back, surrounded by it.
There’s got to be a way out.
I only needed a gap. And that’s what I found. There was the tiniest space between my body and the ice. It wasn’t even a sixteenth of an inch, but it had to be enough. I focused on that tiny pocket of air, searching for a weakness in the ice. The air expanded outwards into a tiny crack near my waist. It broke into that crack and pushed, expanding against it like a stone cutter smashing open a rock.
Crracckkk!
The ice exploded into a thousand pieces. I was just in time to see a look of astonishment on the alien’s face. I then wiped that expression away with a hurricane blast that knocked him flying.
A hail of bullets rang out just as Twelve regained his feet.
It was a group of security guards. Fortunately, they were shooting at Twelve, but the bullets were bouncing off him. His alien makeup, along with the modification, gave him a degree of invulnerability. With him distracted, I picked up a bench and flew behind him, determined to use it as a club. At the last moment, he swung about, grabbed it in midair, and turned the bench to white powder.
That’s a problem.
Anything I hit him with was just going to dissolve into some chemical compound. Unless I simultaneously threw so many things at him that he couldn’t focus on them all. Within seconds, I was tossing dozens of items at him. A cut opened up over his left eye. Okay. It wasn’t much, but at least I was getting somewhere. His invulnerability was dependent on his focus. If he were busy, he couldn’t protect himself.
A figure raced across the concourse towards Twelve. At first, I thought it was a guard trying to attack him. Then I realized it was Mister Evans, Twelve’s receptionist.
No, I thought. Don’t do it!
Through some misguided loyalty, the receptionist had decided to try to talk sense into the alien.
‘Stop!’ I yelled. ‘Keep away from him!’
But there was nothing I could do. The aide had already reached the alien. Twelve laughed. It was a horrible sound. Mister Evans faltered and took a step back, but Twelve advanced on him.
‘Run!’ I screamed.
‘Mister Evans!’ Twelve yelled, reaching out a hand. ‘Thank you for all your years of service!’
He shook the aide’s hand and transformed him into yellow powder: sulfur. The person that used to be Mister Evans splatted to the floor. Now Twelve turned his attention to me, blasting me with another beam of fire. I only just got my shield up in time; the heat was so intense I couldn’t remain in the air. Landing on the floor, I was driven to my knees as I struggled to keep my barrier in place. The temperature went higher and higher. Pieces of equipment were bursting into flames and melting all around me.
The heat began to seep through the barrier.
I should have flown away, I thought. Now it’s too late.
The blast cut off. It was as abrupt as the turning off of a tap. The floor all around me was scorched and black. I expected to see Twelve advancing on me, but instead, he was lying badly burnt on the floor about ten feet away.
What happened?
A voice rang out across the cavern.
‘You take on one of us,’ Chad yelled. ‘You take on all of us!’
Chapter Forty
Chad!
I never thought I’d actually be pleased to see him. The others appeared behind him.
Brodie looked around at the devastation. ‘We leave you alone for five minutes…’ she started.
Twelve was dazed, but already climbing to his feet.
‘We need to move this fight out of here,’ I said.
I peered up at the roof where the VTOL aircraft departed. Dan was one step ahead of me. He used his power to reef the roof apart, and I built a flying ramp to take us through the gap. No sooner were we through than a bolt of
ice sailed past us. We landed on the ground outside.
‘What’s going on?’ Chad asked. ‘How did all this start?’
I gave them the short version. ‘Twelve’s got all our powers and then some,’ I explained. ‘I’m not sure how we can stop him.’
‘Don’t forget we’ve got something he hasn’t,’ Brodie said.
‘Which is?’
‘Experience,’ she said. ‘Thanks to the last few weeks, we know how to control our powers. Twelve doesn’t. He almost blew himself up with that last blast of fire.’
Something came flying out through the gap in the ground. It sailed over our heads and crashed into the earth about twenty feet behind us. It was a tank that had been parked at the rear of the cavern.
‘How much of that juice did he drink?’ Dan asked.
Twelve flew through the opening and landed awkwardly before us.
‘You children are finished!’ he snarled.
‘Hey, Twelve!’ Ebony yelled. ‘Get some new lines! You sound like you’re out of some bad comic book!’
We looked at Ebony with new respect.
‘You go, girl!’ Brodie said.
Twelve levitated some metal debris and swung it about like a child with a toy. Brodie leaped out of the way, but Dan wasn’t so lucky. It caught his leg a glancing blow and knocked him flying.
Chad dragged him away.
‘I think my foot is broken,’ Dan groaned.
We needed to coordinate our efforts. It was too late to formulate a plan, so we needed something simple. Something we already knew. An idea came to me in a flash.
‘The island!’ I yelled. ‘The same as the island.’
Chad nodded. Stumbling away from us, Dan raised a piece of metallic debris and used it as a shield while Chad fired alternating bursts of fire and ice at Twelve. I gathered up Brodie and Ebony, and we took up position behind the alien. The boys had created a diversion. Now we had to stop Twelve—permanently.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 15
