Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7

by Pitt, Darrell

  It had a crack in it.

  Brodie grabbed the top hatch of the submarine and slammed it down. She spun the locking mechanism around furiously until it was sealed as tightly as it would go. All the while, she heard Wolff screaming from within the submarine.

  Only at the end, when the Doomsday virus had fully taken effect, did his screaming end.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  The carnage was immediate and devastating.

  The blast threw me backward. I felt my eyes surge back into their sockets as the detonation struck. Slamming into a group of tourists, I heard the explosion, and after that, everything faded to silence.

  I could see, but I couldn’t make sense of what I saw. The explosion had reduced everything to a reverberating roar in my ears. Images came to me. Disjointed. Piecemeal. Squeezing my eyes, I struggled to make sense of the carnage.

  The grenade had torn away part of the metal plating from the deck, destroying a broad section of the barrier. People and blood and bodies lay everywhere.

  Somehow, incredibly, Wolff was still on his feet. Or perhaps foot was a better description. One of his legs was mostly gone, as was one of his arms. He reached into his pocket.

  The vial was in his hand. He took a single staggering step forward before falling face-first onto the deck. Whatever he intended to do with the vial was unclear. It bounced from his hand across the deck. I couldn’t hear anything, but I could see Ebony as she appeared from nowhere and threw herself after it.

  As the vial rolled off the deck, Ebony slid off after it as she desperately grabbed for the vial. Clambering to my feet, my entire body hurt as I lurched toward her. My legs wouldn’t obey my commands.

  Move!

  Ebony lay precariously unbalanced over the side of the deck. She tried reaching back to drag herself backward, but her hands grasped only air, and she started to topple over the side.

  I threw myself at her, my hand closing around her belt. I gripped hard. Nothing would make me release her—except now I was sliding after her. My other hand desperately tried to grasp the deck, but it was smooth metal. I tried to focus on my powers, but my brain was too addled to make anything work.

  Her entire body slid over the edge. I reached back desperately for help.

  Oh no.

  This was it.

  No, please don’t let it—

  A hand sprang out of nowhere—a small hand. It grasped my hand and dragged me back from the edge, almost dislocating my arm from its socket. At the same time, I pulled Ebony up from over the side onto the deck. Her eyes met mine as she unfurled her hand.

  In her palm lay the vial containing the sample of Doomsday virus.

  We lay there, panting and crying with relief as Ferdy drew both of us close to him.

  I couldn’t hear his words because I was still shell shocked by the blast of the grenade, but I could read his lips.

  ‘Ferdy’s friends,’ he was saying. ‘Ferdy’s friends.’

  ‘That’s right,’ I said, although I couldn’t hear myself speak. ‘Ferdy’s friends.’

  Chapter Forty-Four

  ‘Okay,’ Chad said. ‘I’ve got about a million questions, but let me just start with one.’

  ‘I think I can guess what it is,’ Agent Peterson said. ‘How was it possible for Wolff to be in two places at once?’

  We were sitting in a meeting room of the Las Vegas branch of The Agency. Three days had passed since the explosion on the top of the Eiffel Tower. There had been mourning all over the world for the six people killed and the dozens injured during the blast. A terrorist organization had taken credit for the blast. That had struck me as ridiculous. Clearly, Wolff had acted alone, but obviously, some other group was using it as an opportunity to gain exposure for their own organization.

  There are some sick people in this world. Who would want to be associated with such an evil event?

  Have it your own way, I thought. Just as long as the world is safe.

  We’d come close to failing. Too close. The vial in Alaska had actually cracked open. If it weren’t for Brodie’s quick thinking, the whole planet would have ended up a much quieter place. Engineers were removing the submarine from its underground enclosure and delivering it to a secret facility. There, it would be destroyed in an underground furnace specially designed to reduce anything to atoms.

  We’d saved the day, but it didn’t feel like a victory. Instead, it felt more like delaying the inevitable.

  Agent Palmer was recuperating in hospital. She was expected to make a full recovery. The rest of us were in various stages of recuperation. I’d been severely stunned by the blast. Chad still had his wounds from our time in Yodak Jail. He was the kind of guy who preferred to hide his pain.

  A day after we returned, I found a block of my favorite chocolate sitting on my bed. At first, I thought Brodie had bought it for me, but it turned out to be Chad. When I asked him about it, he wouldn’t even look at me.

  ‘It’s just to say thanks,’ he said, staring at the floor. ‘Don’t think we’re best friends now.’

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’

  ‘But…thanks.’

  I thought of that terrible Yodak Jail and everyone else suffering in North Korea and places like that where freedom was a luxury that most people didn’t enjoy.

  ‘That’s okay,’ I said, holding out my hand to shake.

  He just looked at the hand, shook his head, and laughed.

  ‘Dweeb,’ he said.

  Chad. Who can work him out?

  Agent Peterson’s voice broke into my reverie. ‘We believe Wolff is a type of mod,’ he said. ‘Checking DNA samples he left at both locations, we were able to ascertain that both versions of him were more than twins. They were actually the same person.’

  ‘So his power is…’ Ebony’s voice trailed off.

  ‘We think he can copy himself,’ Peterson said. ‘We have no idea how many versions of him are running around.’

  I shook my head in amazement. ‘One of him is bad enough,’ I said. ‘Let’s hope they’re all finally gone.’

  ‘Identical twins occur in about three of every thousand births,’ Ferdy said.

  ‘And talking about gone,’ Chad said. ‘I think it’s time we were on our merry way.’

  Peterson shook his head. ‘You boys made a promise to The Agency that you would stay,’ he said. ‘What about that promise?’

  ‘We were being blackmailed at the time,’ Chad said firmly. ‘By The Agency. We didn’t have a choice in the matter.’

  The agent put up a hand. ‘Before you do anything too hasty, I think there’s something you should know.’

  ‘What?’ three of us asked simultaneously.

  And laughed.

  Peterson took a deep breath before he started speaking. ‘The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Sunil Verma, made a speech to General Assembly about an hour ago,’ he said. ‘He broke the news to the member states that there are people on Earth who have been modified.’ Peterson paused, allowing this to sink in. ‘This means we’re now living in a new age. Just as the explosion of the atomic bomb heralded the beginning of the nuclear age, we’re now living in an era where mods will be part of our everyday lives.’

  I tried to piece this together. People all around the world now knew that modified humans existed. It would change everything. Glancing at the others, I could see they were also speechless. Even Chad seemed stuck for words.

  Agent Peterson continued. ‘There have already been sightings of people exhibiting unusual powers,’ he said. ‘People in Russia filmed a man flying over the city less than an hour after the announcement.’

  ‘So we’re…out of the closet?’ Ebony asked and blushed.

  ‘If you want to be. These are early days yet, and you all have a long way to go. You still need to train and learn to use your powers. The world needs modified humans now more than ever.’

  Chad frowned. ‘So there’s going to be factories churning out people like us?’ he said.


  ‘Not at all,’ Peterson said. ‘The UN is still working out the legalities of it all. It won’t be legal, but that won’t stop individuals—and nations—from creating modified humans.’

  ‘And what about The Bakari?’ Brodie asked.

  She was referring to the aliens who’d been working with The Agency. For centuries, the Bakari had been working—in secret—to prepare mankind for the intergalactic era.

  ‘People still don’t know about The Agency,’ Peterson said. ‘Or The Bakari. We intend to keep it that way.’

  Chad gave a disbelieving laugh. ‘Good luck with that,’ he said.

  I agreed with him. If people knew about modified humans, they’d eventually find out about both The Agency and aliens. It was only a matter of time.

  ‘So we can leave here and become circus performers,’ Dan said. ‘Cool.’

  ‘Circuses are fun,’ Ferdy said. ‘Ferdy can be a lion tamer.’

  Peterson raised an eyebrow. ‘If you want,’ he said. ‘But you may be interested to know that a man broke into a bank in Malaysia earlier today. Witnesses claim he used some sort of power from his eyes to melt the doors of the vault.’

  ‘So we can be supervillains?’ Chad asked. ‘Cool.’

  ‘If there are supervillains,’ Peterson said, ‘then we need superheroes.’ He paused. ‘We need to balance things up.’

  I thought about my own powers. In the last few days, I’d tried to use them several times, and they’d only worked intermittently. I’d told Brodie about my dilemma, and she told me to just give it time.

  What if my powers stopped working entirely?

  It wasn’t losing my powers that bothered me. It was losing the only family I knew. How could I be part of a superhero team when I had no powers?

  ‘I know a great injustice was done to you all,’ Agent Peterson continued. ‘But I want you to stay on. As a team, working together, you can accomplish great things.’ He looked at each of us in turn. ‘What do you say?’

  It was several minutes before anyone spoke.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The waves raced up and down the beach. A man and his daughter chased them. The man was middle-aged. His daughter was seven years old. They laughed and screamed with delight as they dared the waters of the Atlantic to catch their feet.

  Finally, the man noticed the sun cresting the horizon, and the air growing colder with every passing minute. Soon it would be night. Gathering their things together, they walked toward the dunes and disappeared beyond them.

  The beach lay deserted and silent.

  Then an arm reached out from the water. The head of a man followed. And shoulders. The naked man walked onto the beach and marched resolutely up the sand. He sheltered in an alcove away from the cold night air.

  Shivering, he wrapped his arms around himself and watched the waves. Finally, he saw movement. A head appeared. His naked body followed. The newcomer walked from the water, peered across the darkening beach, and spotted him.

  Side by side on the sand, they sat and watched the gathering darkness.

  Time to start again, Solomon Wolff thought.

  TO BE CONTINUED IN…

  Teen Superheroes

  Book Three

  The Battle for Earth

  The Story So Far…

  We’re a bunch of teenage superheroes.

  Sounds strange? You should try being us. We were the victims of an experiment carried out by a secret organization known only as The Agency. Our memories were wiped, and we were given incredible powers—and new identities.

  My name is Axel. I can control air. I can use it to help me fly, or make shields to protect me from a hail of bullets, or create tornados. I’m American, but as to exactly where I was from—well, don’t ask because I don’t know. That’s what happens when someone wipes your memory.

  Chad is from Norway. He can create—and manipulate—fire and ice. Chad’s also a pain in the—well, you can guess. He’s a friend, but the kind of friend you want to lock in a closet sometimes so you can watch television in peace.

  His sister’s name is Ebony. She can transmute one substance into another. She’s quieter than her brother, but I think she’s gained a lot of confidence in a short time. You can’t stay quiet for long when you deal with supervillains and monsters every day.

  Then there’s Brodie. She’s my girlfriend. Mostly. Sometimes she wants to hit me over the head, but love does strange things to you. Originally from Australia, she has the strength and agility of three grown athletes as well as being a master of martial arts.

  The youngest member of our team is Dan. He can manipulate metals—and sometimes even minds. He’s from China. He likes to think of himself as being like Luke Skywalker, but he’s probably a little more like Yoda.

  Don’t tell him I said that.

  That leaves Ferdy. He’s a genius in addition to being immensely strong. He’s also autistic, so he’s a little hard to understand sometimes. Still, he’s one of us. He’s part of our family, so if you mess with him, you mess with all of us.

  And let me set the record straight on a couple of things. We don’t have superhero names or wear crazy outfits. We’re currently living at the Las Vegas compound of The Agency. The organization is headed up by a race of aliens known as the Bakari. The head of our branch is named Twenty-Two.

  Yes, that’s his name.

  One day we want to find our families—if we have families—and we want our memories back.

  Is that too much to ask?

  Chapter One

  This is my lucky day, Brian Hendrix thought.

  He’d only been sitting at the bar of The Purple Monkey for an hour when a beautiful, unattached woman entered the dark interior. Positioning herself at the corner of the bar, she gazed at him once before ordering a drink. Then she turned her attention to the television above the counter.

  Brian shot a single look in her direction.

  That glance told him two things. The first was that the woman was astonishingly attractive. Slim with black, raven hair, and green eyes. A real stunner. His second thought was that she was out of his league.

  Way out of his league.

  Brian turned his attention to the mirror behind the assorted bottles of liqueurs and spirits at bar. He caught a glimpse of himself and saw a man, fifty years old, twenty pounds overweight, and balding. He focused on the bald spot; he was very balding. The top of his head would be utterly hairless by the time he turned fifty-five. Probably sooner.

  Still, some bald men were considered attractive. Look at Bruce Willis.

  Glancing sideways, Brian realized the woman’s eyes were again directed straight at him. He diverted his attention to the television positioned above the bar while self-consciously stroking his wedding ring. His wife, Elizabeth, was everything a perfect wife could be. Faithful. Supportive. Loving. She’d given him two sons—both fine young men.

  As for himself…

  While he’d been a good provider, he hadn’t always been the ideal husband.

  ‘Goodness,’ the woman said. ‘Check that out.’

  Brian almost dropped his glass. He’d been looking at the television without focusing. Now he watched the screen as an enormous metal monster—some sort of robot—picked up a car and threw it across a street. The footage was being broadcast live. A line of text ran across the bottom of the screen.

  Giant Robot Runs Rampant in Las Vegas. Two confirmed dead. Dozens injured.

  Six months ago, he would have thought the television was tuned to the Disney Channel, but the world was a different place now.

  Mods, Brian thought. The whole world’s become a freak show.

  Most people refused to believe that mods existed—even with television coverage and appearances on Ellen and other talk shows—until they witnessed a mod for themselves. For a long time, Brian had quietly been one of the conspiracy theorists who suspected that mods were some sort of government-inspired delusion. That was until he spent a week in New York and saw a man flying across th
e Brooklyn Bridge.

  Flying.

  With no plane.

  Brian had found himself looking for a jet pack or wires when the small figure started randomly shooting bolts of lightning at the street below. Through sheer luck, Brian had survived the experience, but a man next to him hadn’t been so lucky. One of the lightning bolts struck him and turned him to charcoal. As Brian dove for cover behind a car, he found himself shaking and crying all at once. It was true. They were real. Half an hour later, another flying man in tights had taken out Lightning Man. The papers described the duo as a supervillain and a superhero, but Brian knew them as something else.

  ‘Freaks,’ he muttered. ‘Freaks of nature.’

  He hadn’t meant to say the words aloud, but he found the woman nodding her head enthusiastically at him.

  ‘I used to feel safe,’ she said. ‘But now…’

  Brian nodded. He related his story to the woman, leaving out his ensuing fit of hysteria at the hospital.

  ‘That must have been terrible,’ the woman sympathized.

  ‘Worst day of my life,’ Brian said. ‘That poor man burst into flames. Horrible.’

  ‘Morgan.’

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘My name’s Morgan,’ the woman said, holding out her hand. ‘Morgan Jones.’

  Brian shook it and introduced himself. ‘I’m in insurance,’ he added. ‘Life insurance, mostly.’

  ‘That must be interesting,’ Morgan said.

  No one thought insurance was interesting. No one. Still, Morgan seemed friendly enough.

  ‘I thought I’d come here for a quiet drink,’ the woman continued. ‘My husband passed away recently.’

  ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

  ‘It was cancer. Probably for the best…’ Morgan saw his puzzled expression. ‘I mean, the world’s gone crazy. What with all these flying people about…’

  ‘I know what you mean.’ Brian nodded vigorously. ‘There should be laws. The government has gotta make them illegal. Shoot ‘em on sight.’