‘We’re reaching R1,’ Mister Brown said. ‘I’m sending the recognition codes.’
‘What’s R1?’ Ebony asked.
‘A security checkpoint. This is only the first.’
Continuing towards a blunt end of the station, I saw a space dock with several ships moored inside. Ringing the outside were a dozen cannons aimed in our direction.
‘Fortunately for us,’ Old Axel said, ‘the research lab containing the temporal resonators is only half-a-mile from this end. And I’ve got a map.’
‘Providing we don’t get blown up first,’ Ebony said.
‘They’re returning our codes and allowing us through,’ Mister Brown said.
I let out a sigh of relief.
‘Don’t get too cocky,’ Old Axel said. ‘That’s only the first checkpoint. There are two others to go.’
The spaceport filled the entire view screen. I remembered the extra plating that had been used to disguise Liber8tor. What if someone looked out the window and saw it wasn’t an Agency ship?
‘We’ve reached R2,’ Mister Brown said. ‘I’m sending the second codes.’
My throat was dry. I glanced down at my hands. I was sweating. Usually, I was able to manage my fear, but that was when I was in control of the situation. Here I wasn’t. I was decades in the future on a ship that might get blown to pieces at any second. I glanced at Ebony. She was pale.
For some terrible reason, this made me feel better. I tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace.
‘They’re not returning our codes,’ Mister Brown said.
I wondered what I would do if they fired on us. Maybe I could create an air pocket around us if the ship was blasted apart. That would temporarily save us, but how would we get onto the station? A throbbing pain started at the back of my neck. This is crazy. What were we doing here? Surely there was another way to get a temporal resonator? I was about to speak when Mister Brown let out a sigh of relief.
‘They’ve sent back the confirmation signal. We’re safe.’
‘One more checkpoint,’ Old Axel said.
Liber8tor accelerated. ‘Sending the final codes,’ he said. ‘This is it.’
I rubbed my neck, glancing at Ebony. Her eyes were closed. What was she doing? Oh, praying. I sent up a message as the ship entered the space dock. The ship shuddered as artificial gravity took over. We were inside a massive airlock, with vessels all around us, many similar to our modified Liber8tor. The docking port was only a few hundred feet away.
‘I’m not getting a reply code,’ Mister Brown said, staring at his console. ‘I don’t like the look of this.’
‘Don’t panic,’ Old Axel said. ‘We’ve gotten this far.’
‘Wait a second!’ Mister Brown’s voice rose in panic. ‘They’re fixing cannons on us.’
‘Raise the force field!’
I heard the shimmer of the force field embracing the ship. An instant later, something slammed into Liber8tor and we were thrown sideways. Old Axel swore as I desperately tried to focus on my plan to make an air pocket.
‘Full throttle!’ Old Axel yelled. ‘Fire forward torpedoes!’
I felt the sudden surge of engines as the docking bay rushed towards us. Two torpedoes flew from us as cannon fire slammed into Liber8tor from all sides. Ebony screamed. Our missiles hit the interior doors of the docking bay, reducing them to scrap. Beyond lay a colossal tunnel, large enough to hold our ship. We flew through the shattered remains of the doors.
‘Fire torpedoes!’ Old Axel screamed.
Two more torpedoes rushed away from us. Another explosion followed. The view screen dissolved into static, and Liber8tor crashed into the space station, catapulting me onto the floor.
After that, I knew nothing.
Chapter Sixteen
‘That was quite a ride,’ Chad said.
He had finished vomiting and was now shakily on his feet. Brodie had suffered a similar reaction from the transportation. She turned to Taffe. ‘That’s quite an ability you’ve got there,’ she said.
‘Thanks.’ He motioned to a half-demolished building. ‘We have to take cover,’ he said. ‘Agency forces regularly patrol this area.’
They took shelter in the collapsed building. ‘So where are we?’ Brodie said. ‘It seemed like we traveled miles.’
‘We did. We’re in Queens. Or what’s left of it.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘You’re not from around here, are you?’
‘How can you tell?’
‘You look too well fed. The only people that look as healthy as you are Agency operatives.’
‘We certainly don’t work for The Agency.’ Brodie briefly explained what had brought them here. She expected Taffe to laugh in disbelief, but he merely nodded.
‘I heard The Agency was developing a time machine,’ he said. ‘Looks like James Price finally pulled it off.’
‘Is he as bad as everyone makes out?’ Chad asked.
‘Worse. If you get a chance to change history, do it. You’ll be doing everyone a favor.’
‘We need to get back to Manhattan. Can you take us there?’
Taffe shook his head ruefully. ‘I wish I could, but I have a serious limitation on my power. It takes me a week to recharge after I’ve teleported. If you don’t mind waiting...’
Chad turned to Brodie. ‘We can’t wait a week.’
‘We’ve got to track down the others,’ she said.
‘I have some friends in the resistance,’ Taffe said. ‘They can point you in the right direction.’
Brodie and Chad followed Taffe down a narrow street into a shattered building. He knew the area well. They navigated to the back where a piece of iron lay across scattered debris. Pulling it aside, Taffe led them down a set of stairs.
Blinking in the darkness, Brodie could just make out a basement with wine racks stacked to one side.
‘Who’s there?’ a voice called from the gloom.
‘It’s Taffe. I’ve brought some people. We want to see Ellen.’
They heard the click of a gun being cocked. ‘Raise your hands and prepare to be searched.’
Two men emerged from the darkness and searched them. Brodie felt a little uncomfortable but remained silent. This wasn’t their world. After the men allowed them to pass, they continued down another flight of stairs into an underground car park. Some vehicles were still parked there, but looked like they hadn’t been used in decades. Among them, people sat cleaning weapons and cooking meals over small stoves.
They weaved up more stairs to a gloomy room with windows boarded up on one side. A skinny woman, aged around fifty, sat behind a desk.
Her eyes narrowed. ‘Taffe,’ she said, her voice surprisingly deep. ‘I heard you were taken by The Agency.’
‘I was.’ He introduced everyone. ‘I’m free, thanks to these good people.’
‘Lucky you,’ Ellen said, dourly. ‘I thought you’d been slated for execution.’ Her eyes shifted to Chad and Brodie. ‘How’d they get you free?’
‘We’ve got some tricks of our own,’ Chad said, producing a ball of fire in one hand and snow in the other. ‘We’re friends.’
‘I’m sure you are,’ Ellen said, looking thoroughly unimpressed. ‘How do we know you’re not Agency spies?’
‘Because we’re not,’ Brodie said. ‘We need to get back to Manhattan. We have people waiting for us.’
Ellen gave a hollow laugh. ‘You’ll have to excuse me if I don’t believe you.’ She nodded to a space behind them. For the first time, Brodie saw people seated on torn lounge chairs around a table in the gloom. ‘We need to test you.’
‘We’re not looking for trouble,’ Chad said, creating a circle of fire around him and Brodie. ‘We just need your help.’
The people stood. They were blond, a brother and sister. One side of the girl’s face was terribly scarred; the letter T had been burnt into it.
‘Everyone needs help these days,’ Ellen said. ‘It’s that kind of world.’
&n
bsp; ‘We don’t want to hurt you,’ Chad said.
‘You won’t,’ the girl replied. Chad’s circle of fire disappeared. He tried to make it reappear, but nothing happened.
‘How’d you do that?’ he asked. ‘Only a zeno emitter—’
The girl introduced herself as Sharla and her brother as Drake. ‘You’re not the only one with powers,’ Sharla said, smiling thinly. ‘Not only am I a human zeno emitter, but I can also get the truth out of people.’
‘We don’t have anything to hide,’ Brodie said, clenching her fists.
‘Good,’ Drake said. ‘Then it’ll be easy.’
The girl raised her hand, and Brodie felt her eyes closing. She struggled to keep them open, but she felt as if she had not slept for a year.
When she opened her eyes next, she was floating on a raft on a black ocean. The sky was pitch black except for starlight from constellations unfamiliar to her. It was calm and quiet upon the ocean, but then she felt warmth on her back. Turning, she saw the sun rising on the horizon, except it wasn’t the sun. It was an enormous eye and it could see—
‘Brodie? Can you hear me?’
Brodie awoke. Chad was shaking her shoulder.
‘I hear you,’ she said, sitting up. She was on a lounge in the darkened room. Apart from Chad, only Ellen and Sharla remained. They were speaking quietly together at Ellen’s desk. ‘What happened?’
‘I think Sharla can read minds,’ Chad explained. ‘Whatever they found in ours made them very excited.’
Ellen and Sharla finished their conversation.
‘I apologize for the inconvenience,’ Ellen said to Chad and Brodie.
‘No problem,’ Chad said. ‘Nothing I love better than getting brain probed.’
Sharla smiled without humor. ‘Just be glad I was nice about it,’ she said. ‘Sometimes I’m not.’
‘We understand the importance of your mission,’ Ellen said. ‘Sharla will take you back to Manhattan.’
Chad and Brodie both breathed a sigh of relief.
‘But I should warn you,’ Sharla said, ‘we’ve got to cross the badlands.’
‘And that’s difficult?’ Chad asked.
‘It’ll make everything else you’ve experienced look like a walk in the park.’
Chapter Seventeen
I woke to the blaring of a siren in my ears and someone shaking my shoulder. ‘Come on!’ a voice growled. ‘We’ve got to keep moving.’
Although I felt like a bus had landed on my head, I somehow got to my feet. How’d I get here? Then, I remembered. Time Travel. Forty years in the future. Temporal resonator. Ebony—
She scrambled over a pile of shattered machinery towards me. The crash had completely destroyed Liber8tor. I stared at it. We’re not using that old ship anytime soon. Though gaping holes in the bulkhead, I could make out a corridor beyond.
‘Security will be here any minute,’ Old Axel said, dragging me towards the exit.
‘Mister Brown?’ His motionless body was slumped over the console. ‘Is he—?’
‘Dead. Let’s go.’
Then we were outside the ship and in a corridor. Broken metal lay everywhere. So did the bodies of several security guards. Old Axel checked his map and pointed ahead.
‘This way!’ he snapped. ‘Double time.’
Old Axel pulled a device from his side pouch. It resembled a memory stick, but larger. He approached a nearby computer and placed it against the screen. It gave a loud click, and the image turned to static.
‘I’m glad that worked,’ he said. ‘It just changed this mission from impossible to barely survivable.’
‘What is that?’ I asked.
‘A scrambler virus. It’ll disrupt communications across the station for the next hour.’
We ran down the corridor. Glancing back to the ship, I thought about Mister Brown. I couldn’t believe we were just leaving him behind.
‘Mister Brown—’ I began.
‘You want to bring him as a good luck charm?’ Old Axel grabbed the front of my shirt and slapped me hard across the face. ‘Listen to me! You must both follow every direction I give or we’ll die here! Do you understand?’
I nodded dumbly. He was right. Our chances of survival were almost zero, and we couldn’t do anything to help Mister Brown. We reached a doorway that led to the next section as security guards appeared in the corridor ahead.
‘Ebony!’ Old Axel yelled, pointing at the floor. ‘Oxygen!’
The floor beneath the security team dissolved, and they fell as one to the level below. There was a sickening thud as the men landed, followed by screams of pain.
My future self grabbed me. ‘Fly us across to the opposite door.’
I created a flying wing out of compressed air and got us across. Old Axel closed the door behind us. ‘Turn this door to titanium,’ he told Ebony.
She looked puzzled but complied. Old Axel produced a small box from his pocket. ‘Hold onto your hats,’ he said, smiling.
He pushed the button. An instant later, we heard a wumpf, the entire station shook, and we were thrown to the floor. A new alarm started as Old Axel dragged us to our feet.
‘What the hell was that?’ I asked.
‘A nuclear device I installed on Liber8tor.’
‘A what?’
‘It’ll keep The Agency forces busy for a while.’
I stared in horror at the titanium wall. If it hadn’t held—
‘Let’s go!’
Another team of guards came charging out of a side passage, and I knocked them out with a blast of air. We turned down a side corridor where another two guards appeared. Before I could react, Old Axel had shot them both in the chest, killing them instantly. I stared at the men’s motionless bodies.
I’m a monster, I thought. This world has turned me into a monster.
We turned another corner, and this time doors opened on both sides of the passage. This was all happening so fast. I couldn’t focus. Couldn’t concentrate. Guards charged through with guns raised, and Old Axel shot them.
He stopped to consult his map. ‘This is it,’ he said. ‘We need to go up a floor.’
Looking upwards, I created a cyclone of air that I slammed into the ceiling. It dented—but held.
‘Again!’ Old Axel yelled.
I fought back an angry retort. I wanted to smash him. Instead, I focused, driving the hurricane-force into the ceiling again. After three more attempts, a crack appeared, and we stepped back as green liquid dripped down.
‘Take us up,’ Old Axel ordered.
I didn’t bother to argue. Levitating us through the hole, we entered a chamber that looked more like a swamp than a room on a space station. Trees, vines, and parasitic plants were everywhere. Dirt and muddy pools covered the floor. A rotten egg smell choked the air. Moss grew across the ceiling. The only illumination was the glow of the purple ceiling.
‘What on Earth…’ I said. ‘Where are we?’
‘The biological experimentation center,’ Old Axel explained. ‘We’re almost there. We’ve only got one final obstacle to overcome.’
A scream came from something behind me and I was hit by the stench of putrefying flesh. Turning, I saw a mighty tree that stretched from floor to ceiling. Something appeared from behind it. Something with a multitude of eyes...
Chapter Eighteen
‘It’s called the Hydra,’ Old Axel said.
‘How nice,’ Ebony gulped, her eyes like full moons in the purple light. ‘It has a name.’
The Hydra was the size and shape of a small house, with blue-green scales covering most of its body. Supporting it were four stumpy legs that ended in clawed feet. It had a dozen tentacles, each about ten feet long with suckers, similar to those of an octopus, covering every inch. Each sucker was ringed by spikes; a single swipe would cut a person in two.
Scattered, seemingly at random across the length of the creature, were hundreds of red eyes, tinged with green. In the midst of this madness lay a mouth, a jagged rip t
hat contained a double row of sharp teeth.
But possibly the most disgusting thing about the creature was its lips. They were strangely human, almost delicate.
I wondered how best to attack the monster. A burst of air would drive it back. Then maybe Ebony could create a steel blade—
Old Axel raised his gun and pulled the trigger. A single laser beam cut through the Hydra. It shuddered, its eyes opening in shock—and died.
What the—?
‘That’s it?’ I said. ‘It’s dead?’
‘I said it was the final obstacle,’ Old Axel said. ‘I didn’t say it would be hard to kill.’
Ebony laughed, but it was flavored with hysteria. Old Axel consulted the map as we crossed the swamp. Glancing back at the dead creature, I shivered as I remembered its eyes, tentacles, lips...
‘Oh no,’ I said. ‘That creature...don’t tell me it’s...’
‘Human? It was—once.’
Ebony’s mouth dropped open. ‘It was a person? What the—’
‘Just be glad he’s dead,’ Old Axel advised. ‘For all our sakes.’
Reaching a slime-covered wall, he told me to make a hole. Seconds later, we emerged into a pristine corridor, sucking in lungfuls of fresh air.
‘Ebony,’ Old Axel said. ‘Turn the floor of the biological chamber to oxygen.’
That would cause the entire swamp, including the Hydra, to drop to the floor below.
‘Won’t that crush—’
‘—anyone beneath it,’ Old Axel said. ‘That’s the idea.’
Ebony looked like she wanted to argue, but Old Axel’s instructions had helped us to survive this long. Ebony knelt and reached for the floor.
She stood. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not doing it.’
Old Axel looked furious. ‘This is—’
‘Let’s go,’ she said. ‘Let’s just get these temporal...thingies...and get out of here.’
We continued down the corridor. The door at the end slid open, and we entered a workshop where computer parts crammed the benches. Old Axel’s eyes scanned the room until he focused on a door set into the wall. I opened it by expanding the molecules of air in the lock. It swung free.
Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7 Page 54
