And then only dust.
Chapter Forty-Three
‘She was a bad woman,’ Ferdy said.
I turned to Ferdy in amazement. ‘Weren’t you affected by her powers?’ I asked. ‘The rest of us were unable to move.’
‘Really?’ Ferdy looked surprised. ‘Ferdy thought you were waiting for her to finish speaking.’
‘No, we—’ I got no further. The building shook beneath our feet, and we looked at each other in dismay.
‘We need to turn that thing off,’ Chad said.
The light in the concrete chamber had continued to grow brighter by the second. Ferdy crossed to the console and examined the display as a sound came from outside the building. Ebony and Brodie raced outside while Ferdy manipulated the controls. The girls returned a moment later.
‘That Tagaar warship has just taken off,’ Brodie said. ‘I think they’re running. And it looks like the dome has fallen. Ships and helicopters are approaching the island.’
The entire building shuddered again, sending objects toppling onto the floor.
‘They should not land,’ Ferdy said. ‘We need to evacuate.’
‘The island?’ I asked.
‘No,’ he said. ‘The planet.’
‘What?’
Ferdy pointed at the display on the computer screen. ‘Morgan Le Fay has miscalculated the power generated by the Solar Accelerator. Her configuration will do more than create a massive EMP. It will ignite the atmosphere.’ He examined the controls. ‘It will take Ferdy several minutes to stop it. There are ships about to land on the island. You must tell them to move away.’
I turned to the others. ‘Get everyone away from the island,’ I said. ‘I’ll help Ferdy.’
Brodie grabbed my arm. ‘But you—’
‘I’ll be fine,’ I said.
The building shuddered again, and the intensity of the beam increased. The energy felt like it was burrowing through my skull. Brodie gave me a last despairing look before she and the others raced from the room.
Ferdy continued to stab at the controls. Finally, he turned to me with a look of resignation in his eyes. ‘The controls are frozen,’ he said. ‘Morgan must have built-in a failsafe device.’
‘Can it be stopped?’
‘Not from here.’ He crossed the chamber to the bunker. ‘The titanium rods must be manually disengaged from the bowl, but the radiation will kill anyone who enters.’
‘We don’t need to enter,’ I said.
The light from the interior of the chamber was almost blinding, but I could just make out the rods. I focused on bending them away from the bowl. Nothing happened. I looked down at my shirt and saw blood on the front of my shirt. My nose had begun to bleed again, and it was running like a tap.
No. No. No.
I focused on the metal rods with all my might, but nothing happened.
Not now. Please. Not now.
‘My powers,’ I cried. ‘They’re not working.’
‘Then someone must enter the chamber.’
‘I’ll do it.’
Ferdy looked at me sadly. ‘You should not die,’ he said. ‘You are Ferdy’s friend.’
‘No one’s dying today,’ I told him. ‘We’re all getting out of here together.’
‘Unfortunately, that won’t be possible.’
And that’s when he hit me. I awoke to find myself flat on the floor. A few seconds had passed, but the building was shuddering worse than ever. A crack had formed in the ceiling. The sky had turned a sickly yellow color. The ground shook violently—an earthquake. Struggling to my feet, I heard glass breaking as another section of the ceiling collapsed.
Where’s Ferdy?
I scrambled to the chamber. The light was more intense than ever, but in the midst of it, I saw Ferdy.
‘Ferdy!’ I screamed.
I fought to open the door, but it had been locked from the inside. Again I attempted to use my powers, but nothing happened. I returned to the glass chamber, banging on it in desperation. Inside, Ferdy was pushing against the rods with all his might.
‘Ferdy!’ I screamed. ‘Open the door!’
Through the blinding light, I could just make out his figure. He’d been horribly burnt by the heat in the chamber. His clothes were smoldering, and most of his hair was gone. He looked up at me.
‘Ferdy was able to remotely program the Tagaar fighter ship to intersect with the beam!’ he yelled. ‘Simultaneously blocking the beam and disrupting the power load may stop the detonation.’
I slammed my fists against the glass.
‘The beam is building to ignition,’ he said. ‘It must be stopped now, or the Earth will be destroyed.’
The light built again in intensity, and I shielded my eyes.
‘Ferdy,’ I moaned. ‘Get out of there.’
‘As you said, how you die should be as important as how you live.’
‘Ferdy...no…no...’
‘Ferdy is lucky to—’ He stopped. ‘I’m lucky to have had such friends.’
Then I heard the sound of shearing metal as he put all his strength into bending the titanium rods. The ground shook again as the entire building started to collapse.
‘The Tagaar ship is moving into position,’ he said. ‘There is one chance in 3,472 that—’
The room exploded with light. A brilliant surge of yellow infiltrated every crack and crevice of the structure. In that light was power—a pure burst of energy that threw me back from the chamber. Hitting the ground, I felt the earth give a final shudder beneath me.
And then—nothing.
Silence.
A final piece of masonry fell from the ceiling and hit the floor behind me. The Solar Accelerator was off. Nothing moved. The terrible shaking of the ground had ended. The brilliant yellow light had disappeared. Stumbling to my feet, I crossed to the concrete bunker. Everything was gone from it. The titanium rods. The bowl. Even part of the floor had been gouged out by the force of the explosion. Everything was gone, including Ferdy.
Stumbling from the building, I looked up into the sky and saw the terrible yellow light had dissipated. I watched as a single Tagaar ship slowly spiraled to earth and landed in the ocean. It looked like it would be underwater within minutes, but I didn’t care. I looked beyond it, past the multitude of ships and airplanes, and saw the distant horizon. A brilliant sunset spanned the sky.
It took me almost an hour to find my friends. They were making their way back from the shoreline with Dan, and Mister Brown unconscious on a makeshift stretcher.
‘You did it!’ Chad raced up to me. ‘You saved the world!’
‘Ferdy did it,’ I said. ‘Ferdy saved the world.’
‘Where is that little hero?’ he asked. ‘I’ve got to—’
Brodie stopped him with a wave of her hand. She saw the expression on my face as she drew close. ‘Axel?’ she said.
‘Ferdy’s gone.’ I looked slowly from one face to the next before I told them the news. ‘He’s dead.’
Chapter Forty-Four
I’d like to say that we were treated like heroes, but we weren’t. Indeed, General Clarke and The Agency were pleased that the world had been saved. Who wouldn’t be? But too much had happened for everything to go back to normal.
Three days passed before I was called into a meeting with General Clarke. Armed guards were located both outside his office and on either side of his desk. A lot had changed in a short time. The alien known as Twenty-Two was nowhere to be seen. We had been told that The Agency would forever be under US government control. What that meant for branches outside the US was anyone’s guess. I only knew that this facility, which had once been populated with scientists, was crawling with soldiers. The times were changing. And fast.
‘We need to have a conversation about your future,’ he said.
‘It’s nice to know I have one.’
He didn’t smile. ‘You may not be pleased to hear what I have to say,’ he said. ‘You’re to be tried by a military tribunal for
your crimes.’
‘That sounds serious.’
‘There are several charges. Theft of a classified weapon. Invasion of Russian air space. The kidnapping of the Russian President.’
‘What will all this mean?’
‘You’re going to jail,’ he said. ‘You’re going to jail for a long time.’
I nodded. I’d expected as much. A well of despair opened deep within me, but I did my best to hide it, keeping my face impassive. Going to jail would depend on their ability to hold me. I was superpowered, and they weren’t.
‘I suggest you adhere to the rule of law,’ Clarke said, almost reading my mind. ‘It will go much better for you.’
‘And what about Chad?’
‘We’ve been able to minimize his role in this episode. He’ll receive a severe reprimand, but no charges will be laid.’
‘Good.’ I thought for a long moment. I was pleased about that. He wouldn’t have to pay for my actions. ‘How long will I spend in prison?’
‘That will be up to the judge to decide. I would hope—’
‘You mean there’s hope?’
The general shuffled some papers in front of him. ‘This is the United States,’ he said. ‘You’ll be in a clean and well-maintained facility—’
‘When?’ I interrupted him. ‘When am I going to jail?’
When turned out to be now. I was marched back to my room by a team of soldiers, where I was allowed to pack a few belongings. The rest of the team had assembled by the time I reached The Hub. They didn’t look happy.
‘Where do you think you’re taking him?’ Brodie demanded, her eyes shiny with tears. ‘You’re not taking him away. He helped to save the world—’
‘Brodie.’ I held up a hand. ‘It’s okay.’
‘It’s not okay.’ She shoved the guards aside, threw herself into my arms, and wept. I looked past her and caught Chad’s eye. He looked ready for a fight.
He began. ‘You’ve only got to give the word, Axel,’ he said. ‘Just give the word.’
I knew what he meant. So did the guards who were shuffling at my side.
‘Thanks, Chad,’ I said. ‘But there’ll be no fighting today. Now we just have to look ahead.’
‘To what?’ Ebony was crying. ‘With Ferdy dead and you gone—’
‘You have to make up your own minds,’ I said. ‘It looks like things are changing around here.’
‘But you’re part of the team,’ Dan said. ‘We need you.’
I ruffled his hair. ‘Come and visit me,’ I said. ‘I won’t be hard to find.’
Chapter Forty-Five
My first month in prison was the hardest.
A lawyer was assigned to my case. He was a pleasant guy by the name of Phips. I could tell he wasn’t too hopeful about the outcome. Whenever I asked him how long it would take for my case to be heard, he always had the same reply.
‘These things take time. It could be weeks. Might be months.’
Contemplating the months ahead was the least of my problems. It was the years that worried me the most.
The facility I was held in was a maximum-security prison in the heart of the Las Vegas desert. There were about a hundred men here—all modified humans. One was a vampire. Another guy had the strength of five fully grown men. Another guy had six arms. All were here for a variety of criminal offenses. Some were thieves. Most were murderers. They were all destined to spend a long time in jail.
My powers had returned, but they were useless here. Ankle bracelets fitted with zero emitters stifled my abilities. I couldn’t have escaped even if I wanted to.
The days were long, and I did my best to stay busy. There was a fully equipped gym that I visited every day, but that was the only place where I mingled with the other inmates. Mostly I read a lot and wrote in my diary. The first book was almost full. Soon I’d need another.
I wondered how many I would fill by the time I left this place.
I thought a lot, and sometimes I cried. I thought of all my friends, but mostly I thought about Ferdy. The others, I could occasionally see, but Ferdy was lost forever. Losing someone makes you realize how your life would have been without them. I would have died at Cargall Island if not for Ferdy. He’d knocked me out and gone into that chamber alone. The whole planet would have been destroyed if not for him.
He saved the world, and no one even knew.
But would Ferdy have cared? He probably would have said that praise wasn’t important and started spouting some information about the length of a piece of string. That’s just how he was.
As one month became two, I was awoken late one evening by the sound of alarms. The entire prison was surrounded by an electric fence and armed guards. Peering blearily through the bars of my cell, I watched a ship descend from the sky.
A Tagaar fighter ship.
It landed in the prison yard. A section of the vessel opened up, and a group of figures burst out into the enclosure. The guards started firing immediately, but a protective ice wall had formed around the vessel. The barrels on the guard’s guns bent back on themselves and stopped firing. The figures drew close. One placed her hand against the wall of my cell, and it turned to air.
The girl with her stepped inside.
‘Brodie—’ I began.
‘Come on.’ She grabbed my hand. ‘No ifs or buts.’
I grabbed my diary. Brodie dragged me out of the cell, and we ran across the prison yard. Now the guards had found bigger guns, and explosions were happening all around us. We scrambled aboard the alien vessel, and Brodie took me onto the bridge. As the ship lifted into the air, I looked in amazement at the bridge. It was impressive enough, but it looked like Dan was doing the flying.
I looked around in amazement. ‘Where did you get this?’
‘We stole it,’ Chad said. ‘You want to complain?’
I shook my head.
He stabbed a button, and a view screen sprang to life. I watched the lights of the prison grow smaller and dimmer until they faded completely from sight.
‘You shouldn’t have done this,’ I said. ‘I’m a criminal and now—’
‘If being a criminal is good enough for you,’ Brodie said, ‘then it’s good enough for all of us.’
‘Besides,’ Ebony joined in. ‘We missed you.’
A sob collected in my throat, and it was a moment before I could speak.
‘So we’re all criminals now,’ I said. ‘On the run from the US government, The Agency and—’
‘From everybody,’ Dan said.
‘So where are we going?’ I asked.
‘That depends on where Ferdy and his friends want to go.’ The voice came from all around me, as if from the ship itself. ‘The largest city in Texas is Houston.’
I tried to speak, but no words would come. My mouth fell open in amazement, and Chad laughed at me.
‘Yeah.’ He nodded. ‘We looked like that too when it first happened.’
‘When—’ I was utterly lost for words. ‘What on Earth—’
The voice from the ship continued. ‘It is good to see you again, Axel,’ the ship said. ‘Ferdy has missed you.’
‘Ferdy?’
‘Ferdy’s body was destroyed in the bunker on Cargall Island,’ the voice continued. ‘As the chamber exploded, Ferdy’s consciousness, his memories—his essence—were captured by the particles that intersected with the Tagaar warship.’
‘So where—’
Brodie put her arm around my shoulders. ‘Ferdy’s in the ship’s computer.’
‘He is the ship,’ Dan said.
Ferdy is the ship. The words went through my head without comprehension. Ferdy had become one with the ship. He was dead, but he wasn’t because he was now in the ship’s computer.
Ebony spoke up. ‘He’s all there,’ she said. ‘Every thought. Every memory. Every idea. Plus, he still plays a mean game of chess.’
‘Although throwing the ball around has gotten a whole lot more difficult,’ Brodie added.
&nb
sp; ‘Ferdy’s chances of survival were approximately one in 3,472,’ Ferdy continued.
‘Those aren’t good odds,’ I said.
‘Ferdy had assistance,’ he said.
‘What sort of assistance?’
‘Friendship,’ he said. ‘Having friends and family is a powerful force. Possibly the most powerful in the universe. Ferdy did not want to lose the people he loved. It gave Ferdy an edge in surviving that which couldn’t be survived.’
‘There’s only one problem,’ Chad said.
‘Which is?’ I asked.
‘Technically, we’re outlaws on a ship.’
‘So?’
‘So we’re pirates.’ Chad shook his head in mock dismay. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m not getting a parrot.’
We all laughed. Finally, Brodie showed me my place on the bridge. I was seated at a console next to her. There were instructions on the touch display, but as yet, they were unreadable.
‘It’s written in Tagaar,’ Brodie said. ‘It takes a little getting used to.’
‘So where are we going?’ I asked.
No one said anything at first. We all looked at each other in silence before Dan pointed to the viewscreen. All I could see were stars.
‘That-a-way,’ he said.
TO BE CONTINUED IN…
Teen Superheroes
Book Four
The Twisted Future
The Story So Far…
My name is Axel.
I’m one of a group of teenagers who had their memories wiped and were given incredible powers. I can control air, turn it into cannonballs, create invisible shields, or use it to fly at incredible speeds. I’m American, but don’t ask me what state I’m from because I don’t know.
The next member of our team is Brodie, a red-headed Australian with the strength and speed of three grown men. She’s also my girlfriend, which means I think she’s sweet and lovable—even though she can take my head off with one punch.
Then there’s Chad. He’s Norwegian, blond, brave, and—well, a complete egotistical idiot—but still a friend. He can create and manipulate fire and ice. His sister is Ebony, the quiet member of the team. She can transmute elements, so if you have a rose, she can turn it to gold or silver or carbon. It’s a cool power to have.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 48
