Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7

by Pitt, Darrell

  ‘Approximately half a mile,’ Ferdy said. ‘If I were to calculate that in inches, it would be—’

  ‘Later!’ Brodie yelled.

  A shot came from behind.

  ‘Gark!’ Bax swore.

  Another group of warriors were coming up the tunnel behind them. Brodie and the others opened fire, but one of the warriors let loose a volley at the same time, and Ebony cried out. She hit the ground, gripping her shoulder. Dan quickly focused on the roof and tore loose a section. He propelled it towards the warriors, and it slammed into them, knocking them over like bowling pins.

  ‘I’m okay,’ Ebony said through gritted teeth.

  Brodie examined the wound. ‘No, you’re not.’

  ‘We’ve got to keep moving,’ Zena said.

  ‘We’re not going to make it to the shuttle bay,’ Dan said. ‘There’s too many of them.’

  Brodie examined Ebony’s wound. She had a bad burn across her right shoulder.

  ‘We’ve got to go sideways,’ Dan said. ‘Like in Star Wars.’

  ‘Huh?’ Brodie said. ‘Which one?’

  ‘The first one,’ Dan said. ‘It’s when they rescue Princess Leia, and they are trying to escape from the stormtroopers.’

  He pointed at a piece of paneling on the wall and tore it loose. A shaft, descending into darkness, lay beyond. Brodie didn’t feel comfortable about jumping into the unknown, but the Tagaar troops were getting closer with every second.

  ‘All right.’ She made a snap decision. ‘Let’s do it.’

  Bax and Zena went first. They were followed by Dan and Ebony. Brodie grabbed Ferdy’s arm and pointed down the tube.

  ‘Okay, Ferdy,’ she said. ‘It’s your turn.’

  He looked down the shaft. ‘It is very dark.’

  ‘Now is not the time to be a scaredy-cat.’

  ‘Ferdy is not any sort of feline. Cats are descended from—’

  ‘Take my hand.’ Brodie dragged him to the gap. ‘We’re going at the count of three. One, two—’

  She jumped, dragging Ferdy down the tube behind her. The shaft closed in around them. It fell straight down for several feet before they hit a bump, and it angled out into a steep incline. A stench hit her. It smelt like garbage.

  It’s just like Star Wars, she thought. We’re going to land in a garbage dump. Wait a second. Wasn’t there a monster in—

  A red glare appeared ahead of them, and in the next instant, they fell through a gap. For a moment, they were in mid-air. Then they rebounded off some kind of roof and fell through a hole into what appeared to be the living room of some sort of shanty hut. Brodie looked up to see everyone standing around, rubbing their bumps and bruises. Ebony helped Brodie to her feet.

  ‘Ferdy was in the air,’ Ferdy said. ‘Ferdy was flying.’

  ‘You were, indeed,’ Brodie said, peering about. ‘Where are we?’

  ‘You’re in Sartaria,’ a voice said from behind them.

  The man in the doorway was humanoid in shape, but he was covered in a fine light brown fur. He had a snub nose and eyes set widely apart.

  ‘I’ve heard of this place,’ Zena said. ‘It’s the slave section of this Tagaar ship.’

  He nodded.

  ‘There are people from a hundred different worlds here,’ he said. ‘My name is Tomay. I’m a member of the Council.’

  ‘You said this is the slave section,’ Ebony said. ‘What do you do down here?’

  ‘We work in the foundries for the Tagaar,’ Tomay said. ‘We build parts for cannons and other equipment.’

  For the first time, Brodie noticed stifling heat and the smell in the air—

  Her thoughts about the garbage dump weren’t so far from being true. She peered upward, realizing they’d smashed through the roof of a makeshift home. The darkened shaft lay behind them. Returning through it would prove impossible; it was too steep to climb.

  ‘We need to get out of here,’ Brodie said. ‘Can you help us?’

  Tomay shook his head sadly. ‘There is no escaping from Sartaria.’

  ‘The guards must come down here sometimes,’ Dan said. ‘Surely we can overpower them—’

  ‘They have weapons,’ Tomay said. ‘They’ll kill anyone who stands against them. Sometimes they kill a random person to set an example.’

  That’s terrible, Brodie thought. The Tagaar are monsters!

  A chill ran down her spine. Now they intended to do the same thing to Earth! What role did The Bakari play in all this? Wasn’t there supposed to be a Union of Planets? What was the Union doing?

  She asked Tomay about this and was surprised by his response.

  ‘The Union is mostly ineffectual,’ he said. ‘They meet and set rules and make laws, but they lack the military might to enforce their rulings.’

  ‘So they’re like a toothless tiger,’ Brodie said.

  Tomay looked at her in confusion.

  ‘It sounds tough,’ Brodie explained. ‘But it has no bite.’

  The alien nodded. ‘And now you’re in Sartaria. The land of the slaves.’

  They followed him out of the dwelling. They stood in a narrow alley with similar falling-down buildings lining both sides of it. The roof curved high above them; its highest reaches lay in complete darkness. They had been lucky to fall through an air shaft where the ceiling almost met the floor. Casting her eye across the chaotic landscape, Brodie saw various light sources illuminating the gloom. A shower of bright yellow sparks erupted from somewhere to their left.

  That must be a furnace, Brodie thought. One of the places where they build Tagaar equipment.

  The air was thick with smoke and strange odors. A family walked past them, giving them a curious look.

  ‘They are Densai,’ Bax said.

  ‘Their world was completely destroyed by the Tagaar,’ Tomay said.

  ‘When you say completely destroyed…’ Dan’s voice trailed off.

  ‘The Densai fought long and hard against the Tagaar,’ Tomay explained. ‘The Tagaar wished to make an example of the Densai to warn others who might stand against them. They ignited the atmosphere of their planet. It killed every living thing on the surface. To complete the process, they drilled through to the core of the world and exploded it from within.’

  ‘That’s terrible,’ Ebony said, feeling ill.

  ‘I think we need to—’ Tomay started.

  A group of men came hurrying around a corner in the settlement and headed straight for them.

  ‘That is Ragin,’ Tomay said quietly. ‘He is another member of the Council.’

  ‘So it is true,’ Ragin said as the group drew near. He was a tall, pale gray man with large eyes. ‘There are strangers in Sartaria.’

  ‘We didn’t mean to intrude—’ Brodie started.

  Ragin cut her off. ‘It is too late for that,’ he said. ‘You’ve already brought trouble.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Ebony asked.

  ‘The Tagaar soldiers are in the main square,’ Ragin said. ‘They are demanding that we hand you over.’

  ‘And if you don’t?’ Dan asked.

  ‘If we do not,’ he said, ‘they will execute one of us every hour.’

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I was standing in a small lane in the early morning light. I felt terrible about leaving Chad behind, but there was nothing else I could have done. According to the wrist compass, the Russian President was nearby—and on the move. He and his security forces had probably been warned of my approach.

  I flew straight up into the sky. I’d been worried before about the authorities catching sight of me, but I was beyond that now. There was only one direction, and that was forward. Hovering over the town, I looked for movement on the landscape and found it immediately. A convoy was leaving the other side of the village. It comprised a dozen jeeps and personnel carriers. In the midst of it was a limousine.

  My stomach turned over uncomfortably. It wasn’t so much at the thought of taking on the convoy—although that was difficult enough. I
t was what awaited me if I succeeded. I would have to use the Stonekiller weapon on the President of Russia, reducing him to a living death.

  And then my whole life would never be the same again.

  Creating a shield around me, I built up speed as I headed for the convoy. A gunshot rang out; they’d already seen me. I swung around behind the line of vehicles as the firing continued. Soon an angry hail of bullets was rebounding off me. The convoy accelerated out of town, followed a road through a field and into a thickly wooded area. I hung back and waited until it reached the forest. It would be more difficult for me to maneuver in the woods, but it would also be harder for them to spot me.

  Waiting until the convoy reached the heart of the wood, I focused on one of the trees near the road. Building up an enormous gust of wind, I applied some force, and it fell with an almighty crash behind the limousine. The vehicles behind it screeched to a halt. Stranded. Only a few armored cars remained in front of the luxury automobile.

  A rocket flew out of nowhere at me. A launcher must have been on one of the lead vehicles. I flew erratically through the trees, but it still pursued me. Flying high above the field, I created a cannonball of air and propelled it straight towards the rocket.

  Ka-boom!

  The shockwave knocked me flying for a few seconds. I shook my head to clear it before once again sighting the remaining convoy. Good. The rear vehicles were still stranded behind the fallen tree. Now I only had to focus on the others.

  I zoomed straight down again and blasted another tree to block their passage down the road, but the vehicles were too fast. They whizzed past before it struck the road. A rocket raced towards me, but I blasted it out of the air before it drew too close. Making up for lost time, I sped after the convoy and knocked another tree to the ground. This one crashed into the bonnet of the limousine, dragging the car to a halt. The remaining vehicles slammed their brakes on, but I threw a hurricane blast at them, sending them tumbling into the forest.

  Agents leaped out of the front and back of the limousine. They screamed something in Russian and started shooting. My shield held. If it failed for even a second, I would be cut to pieces by the barrage of bullets. I knocked the men to one side as I advanced on the car.

  I grabbed the handle of the middle door, but it didn’t move.

  Okay.

  They were going to make me fight every step of the way.

  Focusing on the tiny gaps of air between the door and the frame of the vehicle, I expanded the air until the door shuddered and broke loose. I grabbed it and threw it to one side. At the same time, I was hit by another hail of bullets. This time it was from the two occupants of the vehicle: a man and a woman.

  I hadn’t expected a woman. I looked at her dumbly. It’s the President’s wife. Ivana. An expression of utter terror crossed her face. My first thought was to console her, but that was ridiculous. I was about to consign her husband to a living death. There were no words that could lessen the pain. Knocking the guns from their hands, I reached in and knocked out the President with a single punch. The Agency had been teaching me how to make my blows more powerful by constructing an invisible glove around my hand. I never knew I would use my training against an innocent man.

  The President sagged in the seat. Reaching for him, Ivana screamed something and started slapping at me with her bare fists. None of the blows struck me, but I was all too aware of her hysteria.

  ‘Sorry,’ I grunted.

  Throwing the President over my shoulder, I withdrew from the vehicle. Several armed soldiers had formed a semicircle around me, but someone who looked like a captain barked out an order. They wouldn’t fire for fear of hitting the President. I zoomed straight up into the sky.

  I had him. Now I had to find a place to use the Stonekiller on him. Fortunately, the wood in which I’d stopped the convoy was large. After a few minutes of flying, I located a small clearing. I crashed into the soft earth untidily. The effects of the last few days were beginning to take their toll on me. As I lowered the President to the ground, I felt him stir, and he swung about wildly. He landed a punch in the middle of my face.

  Everything went white for a moment. He’d taken me off-guard. Without my shield up, I was as vulnerable as anyone. Releasing him, I hit the ground hard. He turned to run, but I recovered quickly, knocking his feet out from under him with a blast of air. He landed face-first into the soft ground. Wiping a line of blood from my nose, I struggled the Stonekiller from my backpack.

  Alexi Kozlov rolled over and looked up at me with a mixture of fear and hatred. ‘You Americans are foolish to make this attack,’ he said. ‘Russia will retaliate with all of its might. You cannot kill me without expecting terrible repercussions.’

  ‘I know there will be repercussions,’ I said.

  Pointing the gun at him, I began to squeeze the trigger.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ‘That’s blackmail!’ Dan said. ‘And evil…and bad…and...’

  Tomay looked at him sadly. ‘The Tagaar are not concerned with morals. They only know of one thing, and that is domination.’

  ‘You can’t hand us over,’ Brodie said. ‘We’re innocent—’

  ‘Everyone here is innocent. We have all lost friends and family and worlds to the Tagaar. I’m not sure how much more we can lose.’ His bottom lip trembled. ‘But the decision is not mine to make. We must hold an emergency meeting of the Council to discuss this matter.’

  Ragin looked like discussion was the last thing on his mind. ‘What are these people to us that we must make—’

  ‘The Council must decide!’ Tomay snapped. He turned to Brodie and the others. ‘I will ask you to follow me to the Council Chambers.’

  ‘I appreciate the offer,’ Brodie said. ‘But we should probably just leave.’

  ‘Leave?’ Ragin looked at her in amazement. ‘Child, none of us would be here if we could simply leave!’

  ‘There must be a way out,’ Ebony said. ‘There was certainly a way in.’

  She pointed up at the hole in the ventilation shaft.

  ‘The guards will repair that shortly,’ Tomay said. ‘And there is no way to return up the chute. And even if there were—what then? Where would we go?’

  Brodie was getting a little tired of this negative attitude, but she reminded herself that these people had been through a lot. They had lost their worlds and been reduced to slavery. Besides, she wasn’t sure it was right to leave these people here. Although not sure how she could help them escape, a few minutes to think might present some options.

  She glanced back to the ventilation shaft. It was one thing to return to their Flex Fighter. It was quite another to plan a mass evacuation of thousands of people.

  ‘Come to the Council Chambers,’ Tomay said. ‘There, you will be able to present your argument.’

  Brodie nodded to the others. ‘I think we should follow him.’

  They trailed after him in silence through a labyrinth of shanty town structures. Brodie peered into the homes as they passed. Some people were cooking food. Others were sleeping. Everyone looked demoralized.

  Brodie decided to try to break through Ragin’s defensive attitude. ‘It must be very hard for you down here.’

  Ragin nodded without speaking.

  ‘How many people live in Sartaria?’ Brodie persisted.

  ‘Too many,’ Ragin said. ‘Almost fifty thousand.’

  ‘Fifty thousand?’ Brodie was astounded. ‘How do you survive?’

  ‘The Tagaar give us scraps, but we also have lichen farms which supply most of our food.’

  Brodie thought she’d misheard the man. ‘Lichen?’

  ‘It is commonplace on Talias,’ he said. ‘The conditions are right to grow a particular type of lichen. It sucks nutrients from the air and grows from our waste.’

  Brodie’s stomach turned at the thought, but she said nothing.

  ‘We have learned to work together to survive,’ Ragin said. ‘Some of the people here were sworn enemies befor
e we were attacked by the Tagaar. Now we’re friends.’

  ‘So you can understand how important it is to fight the Tagaar.’

  ‘Fighting is necessary when it is possible to win,’ Ragin said. ‘Unfortunately, we cannot prevail against them.’

  ‘You said you built cannons—’

  ‘Parts of cannons. The Tagaar wouldn’t be so foolish as to let us have control of weapons.’

  They reached a building constructed from a framework of scrap metal and covered in rags. Ragin led them inside. A raised dais in the center was obviously used for speakers. Another chamber lay at the back in near darkness. They were led into the rear chamber through a thin curtain. A lamp in the middle dimly illuminated the area.

  ‘Petitioners to the Council normally wait here until they are heard,’ Tomay said. ‘I will ask you to remain here until the Council assembles.’

  Brodie and the others nodded. Tomay and Ragin disappeared through the curtain. No one said anything until they left the Council Chambers.

  ‘They can’t just hand us over to the Tagaar!’ Dan exploded. ‘That would be murder.’

  ‘I say we escape,’ Ebony said. ‘We need to get away from these crazy people.’

  ‘They’re not crazy,’ Brodie said. ‘They’re just desperate to survive.’

  ‘We don’t even know if it’s possible to escape from here,’ Zena said. ‘And what would happen to those who remain in Sartaria?’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Can you imagine the anger of the Tagaar if we’re not handed over?’ Zena continued. ‘If they are prepared to kill a slave every hour—’

  ‘Then nothing would stop them from massacring these people,’ Brodie said. ‘No. We can’t just leave.’

  ‘Ferdy and his friends have many advantages,’ Ferdy said.

  The autistic boy had been so quiet that Brodie had totally forgotten about him. ‘You mean our superpowers.’

  He nodded. ‘Ferdy has great strength and great intelligence, and Dan can manipulate metals, and Ebony can—’

  ‘Thanks, Ferdy,’ Brodie stopped him. ‘You’re right. We do have powers. A coordinated attack could—’