Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7

by Pitt, Darrell

  ‘You mean, like us seeing the future and knowing that you and Brodie could end up together?’ Ebony said.

  Chad reddened. ‘That’s not going to happen.’

  ‘Maybe or maybe not. We saw how things could turn out. Maybe we’ve changed that future, and maybe we haven’t.’

  ‘That future didn’t include Axel finding his family,’ Chad pointed out.

  ‘If he has found his family,’ Dan said. ‘And what will the rest of us do?’

  ‘Do?’ Chad looked at him as if he were stupid. ‘We go on living. We don’t need Axel. We don’t need anyone.’

  ‘We’re better together,’ Ebony said. ‘Ferdy?’

  ‘Yes, friend Ebony?’ Ferdy’s voice came from the loudspeakers set into the walls. ‘What can Ferdy do for you?’

  ‘I’m just checking to see if you agree? That we’re stronger if Axel’s with us.’

  ‘There is always strength in numbers,’ he said. ‘And the largest pyramid ever constructed is the Quetzalcóatl Pyramid in Mexico City.’

  ‘Thanks for that,’ Ebony said. ‘But I’m not sure that’s helpful.’

  ‘The whole universe is in a constant state of change,’ Ferdy continued. ‘Axel may leave Liber8tor to live with his family, and a whole new train of events will be set in motion.’

  ‘Thanks for that,’ Dan said. ‘I think.’

  ‘There is another issue,’ Ferdy continued. ‘Liber8tor is experiencing a loss of power.’

  ‘What from?’ Chad asked.

  ‘Ferdy does not know. It is small and started five hours and seven minutes ago.’

  ‘I suppose we should check it out.’

  ‘We’d better search both the inside and outside of the ship,’ Dan said, thoughtfully. ‘Then I’ll run some diagnostics on the engine.’

  Chad sighed. ‘Need I remind you that you’re not in charge?’ he said.

  ‘Neither are you!’ Dan snapped. ‘What do you think we should do?’

  ‘Uh, how about checking out both the inside and outside of the ship. And then you could run some diagnostic…things on the engines.’

  ‘Genius,’ Dan muttered. ‘Pure genius.’

  He and Ebony started on the top floor of the ship while Chad checked the exterior. Dan knew a visual inspection wouldn’t reveal a lot. The most he could hope for was to spot something out of the ordinary.

  Astronavigation was a dome-shaped room with a control panel in the center. They had never used the touch display in case they blew up something by accident. An odd-looking swirling shape moved about in a jar attached to the machinery. They had no idea what it did, but it looked the same as always. They kept searching.

  The next few levels were crew quarters. There was a small training room below these as well as storage areas where spacesuits were kept. The Tagaar were physically larger than humans; if Dan or the others ever needed to use the suits, they could wear them, but with difficulty.

  An armory, the next level down, held dozens of rifles. Dan had rarely entered the room because he had never needed the weapons. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so they kept moving.

  There was little to see in the galley. The freezers still contained hundreds of packets of K’tresh, a frozen food Dan had learned to endure, but not enjoy. According to Ferdy, it was highly nutritious. Of course, Dan reflected, Ferdy didn’t have to eat it, and they did.

  The engines were below this, a complex fusion generator that Dan had only just begun to understand. Ferdy had told him not to feel too badly about his ignorance; some of the best scientists on Earth were only now beginning to comprehend the technology.

  As far as Dan could tell, everything was operational. He and Ebony checked gauges and readouts on the computers. Half an hour later, Chad returned.

  ‘I didn’t find anything,’ he said. ‘The hull seems intact.’

  Ebony frowned. ‘What happened to you?’

  Chad had a lump on his forehead. ‘I decided to head butt the hull to see which was harder. No prizes for guessing the winner.’

  Dan indicated the controls. ‘We didn’t find anything either,’ he said. ‘Everything seems normal.’

  Brodie appeared in the doorway. ‘Hey everyone,’ she said. ‘There’s something I should tell you.’

  ‘What?’ Ebony said.

  ‘It’s Axel,’ Brodie said, her voice breaking. ‘He’s leaving.’

  Chapter Seven

  Farewells are hard.

  I didn’t know how hard until I had to say goodbye to Dan, Ferdy, Ebony, Chad, and—of course—Brodie.

  Although I’d felt conflicted when I left Louise and Henry’s place, I had known in my heart what I would do. There was only one real answer: I would stay at the farm, and the crew of Liber8tor would go on without me. It didn’t mean I would stay with Louise and Henry forever, or that I would never see my friends again. But it did mean I had to start a new life by piecing together what remained of the old.

  Gathering outside Liber8tor with the others, I tapped my communicator watch. ‘Ferdy?’ I said.

  ‘Yes, friend Axel.’

  ‘I’m leaving now.’

  ‘Ferdy will be sorry to see you leave, but we will see you again soon.’

  ‘Is that a premonition?’ I asked. Ferdy’s intelligence was so great that he could sometimes predict future events with great accuracy. ‘Can you see my future?’

  ‘Nobody can see the future, but we are friends. We will see each other again.’

  I turned to Ebony. ‘I know this seems like the end, but it’s not,’ I said. ‘It’s actually a whole new beginning.’

  ‘I know.’ She wiped away tears. ‘I’d do the same thing in your place.’

  She hugged me, then pulled away, staring at the ground.

  Dan bit his lip and sighed. ‘Hey Axel...er, I mean Adam,’ he said. ‘When are we going to see you next?’

  ‘Whenever you want. The door is always open.’ I glanced around. ‘Just don’t bring The Agency.’

  ‘We won’t.’

  I turned to Chad. ‘Hey man,’ I said. ‘Looks like this is it.’

  ‘Looks like it.’ Chad looked like he wanted to either cry or hit me. Instead, he enveloped me in a bear hug. Rubbing the top of my head, he said, ‘You remember Yodak Prison?’

  We had been confined there not long after we met. It was an utter hellhole. ‘How could I forget it?’ I asked.

  ‘You saved me,’ he said, swallowing hard. ‘You put everything on the line and saved me when you could have left me behind.’

  ‘I did what I had to do.’

  ‘I don’t know if I ever thanked you,’ he said, staring at me. ‘Ever really thanked you.’

  ‘You have now.’ I put my hand out, and he shook it. ‘Just look after the gang.’

  ‘I will.’

  And then—Brodie. I don’t remember if I’d ever kissed a girl before Brodie. I’d like to think that if I ever lost my memory again, I’d at least remember the feel of her lips on mine. There aren’t that many things in life you’d rather die than forget. Her kiss was one of them.

  ‘I’ll walk you to the farmhouse,’ Brodie offered.

  I nodded.

  Leaving Liber8tor behind, I didn’t look back. I thought I would burst into tears if I did. My stomach felt heavy, my throat tight, and my head dizzy. How strange that some ugly old Tagaar spaceship had become my home. I suppose home was where you made it.

  We walked in silence under the shade of the trees lining the road. The morning was bright and clear. The smells of horse manure and freshly mowed hay mingled on the breeze. An insect buzzed in the undergrowth. A falcon coasted overhead.

  I peered up at the bird. For a moment, I wanted to be with it, flying away.

  Why am I dreading this? This should be the most fantastic moment of my life, but I feel like I’m going to a funeral.

  ‘How do you feel?’ Brodie asked, sensing my inner turmoil.

  ‘Not great. I don’t know why.’

  ‘It’s a beginning,’ she
said. ‘But it’s also an ending. Our group won’t be the same without you.’

  ‘You can come and visit.’

  Brodie smiled wanly. ‘It’s a bit hard to visit when you’re on the run,’ she said. ‘You’ll have to keep a low profile.’

  I hadn’t thought about that part. My superhero days are over. No more fighting crime and flying off into the sunset.

  This is all happening so quickly, I thought. But The Agency stole my life. It’s time I got it back.

  Rounding a bend, the distant farmhouse came into view. It looked solitary and isolated, surrounded by fields. When I had first woken up with newfound powers, there had been a few stray memories of someone who I thought may have been my brother. But Louise and Henry had not mentioned a brother. He must have been a figment of my imagination.

  I felt cold anger as if I’d swallowed a piece of ice, and it was lodged in my stomach. The Agency had stolen everything from me and the others. It should be made to pay. Instead, I would spend the rest of my life on the run, never truly free.

  ‘You’ve still got your wrist communicator,’ Brodie said.

  ‘I know. I can contact you anytime.’ It wouldn’t be the same, though. She and the others would be having adventures and saving the world while I was—what? Plowing fields. Planting crops. Attending school. ‘Maybe you can all settle down, too.’

  ‘I’d like that,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know where that would be.’

  ‘It could be here.’

  ‘I know. But what about Ferdy?’

  Hiding Ferdy was always going to be an issue. Still, couldn’t we put him in a barn somewhere? What a horrible idea. Spending the rest of your life locked in a barn. Where were these crazy thoughts coming from?

  We were on the road outside the property now.

  ‘I don’t want to go,’ I said.

  ‘I know,’ Brodie said. ‘But you have to.’

  ‘Do you want me to?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then—’

  ‘You’ve got to find out who you are,’ she said. ‘Who you really are. Maybe you’ll come back to us one day, or maybe you won’t. I don’t know.’ She paused. ‘But I do know this: you can’t live wondering about a life that could have been. You’ve got to know, one way or the other.’

  I nodded. Brodie leaned in and kissed my cheek.

  ‘I’ll think about you every day,’ I said.

  ‘I should hope so.’

  Smiling sadly, Brodie gave me another hug and turned away, tears on her face. As she started back to the ship, I called out her name, and she stopped, turning back one last time.

  ‘I’ll be seeing you,’ she said. ‘Adam.’

  Chapter Eight

  Chad peered through the window of his cabin. They had taken off again towards Virginia since Axel had departed. Chad had tried listening to music, but the sound seemed to be lost in a haze of memories.

  Axel was gone.

  He wasn’t sure how that made him feel. They had been friends—good friends—until their journey to the future. Everything had changed after that. Axel and Brodie had broken up, and there was tension in the team that hadn’t been there before. Brodie said she wasn’t looking for a relationship, but Chad knew he still had strong feelings for her.

  Was it love?

  He wasn’t sure what love was. Wise men and philosophers and singers had been puzzling over that for centuries, and there still wasn’t an answer.

  ‘Liber8tor crew,’ Ferdy’s voice came over the intercom. ‘Please assemble on the bridge.’

  ‘On my way,’ Chad said, tapping his communicator.

  He found the others at their stations.

  ‘The power drain on Liber8tor is continuing at an increasing rate,’ Ferdy said. ‘We must put down soon, or the ship will run out of power.’

  ‘What’s our current location?’ Brodie asked.

  ‘Northern Virginia, five miles east of a town called Targo.’

  ‘Is there somewhere we can land without being disturbed?’

  ‘There is a forest outside the town with a clearing big enough to accommodate Liber8tor.’

  ‘Take us down,’ Brodie said.

  Chad almost opened his mouth to argue, but he remembered the last time that happened. Someone had to be leader, especially now that Axel was gone, and surely no one could lead the team better than The Chad? Still, starting an argument about it right now was a bad idea.

  The ship landed in a forest clearing where logging had been carried out years before. The clearing here was overgrown with low-lying bushes and ringed by an impenetrable wall of thick woods.

  ‘Ferdy,’ Dan said. ‘Do you have any idea what’s causing the power drain?’

  ‘Not as yet, friend Dan,’ Ferdy said. ‘Ferdy can run a full check of all systems.’

  ‘We already did that, but please do it again.’

  ‘Are there any houses nearby?’ Brodie asked.

  ‘There is a street less than half a mile away,’ Ferdy said.

  That’s close, Chad thought. Too close.

  ‘We should check it out,’ he said. ‘Make certain they’re not likely to come this way.’

  Once outside the ship, Chad breathed in deeply, inhaling the mingled scent of pine and fresh ferns. His eyes settled on Brodie. She caught his eye and gave him a sad smile. He felt bad for her—in fact, he felt bad for everyone—but they had to keep moving forward. Axel—Adam—was gone. They had to continue without him.

  ‘There’s a path,’ Dan said, pointing. ‘It must lead to the street.’

  The path was a tangle of weeds. At the end was a dirt road with an old house next to the woods. It looked abandoned. Further down the road was another house, a well-kept weatherboard with a tidy garden and an old cemetery opposite. Passing the rundown building, Chad felt a shiver dance up his spine.

  They could use that place for a horror movie.

  ‘Visitors!’

  The voice came from behind them, and they turned to see an elderly lady emerging from the bushes. She was in her seventies, graying, with a kindly face. Removing her gardening gloves, she pushed back a strand of loose hair and peered at them curiously.

  ‘Are you camping in the woods?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Brodie said, glancing at the others. ‘Just overnight.’

  ‘You must come in for tea and scones,’ the woman said.

  ‘I don’t think—’

  ‘We’d love that,’ Chad interrupted. The old lady seemed harmless enough. And maybe they could discover the lay of the land. If this part of town was deserted, maybe they could stay awhile. ‘Let me help you.’

  He picked up her basket containing shears and a few cut flowers.

  ‘That’s so kind of you,’ the old lady chatted. ‘I don’t get many visitors out here.’

  ‘What’s your name?’ Ebony asked.

  ‘Mavis,’ the woman said. ‘Mavis Shaw.’

  ‘It seems very quiet around here.’

  ‘It is,’ she said. ‘It would be lovely to see more people, but the road isn’t good, and no one comes out this way.’

  A quiet area, Chad thought. That’s not a bad thing.

  He was already thinking about what Brodie had been talking about: a permanent place to call home. They had tried it before, but it hadn’t worked out. Maybe this was a possibility, a quiet spot in the country, away from the hustle and bustle. If Axel...Adam...had been able to make a new life for himself, why couldn’t they?

  Mavis led them into her living room. A cat, perched on a sideboard, darted out of sight.

  Friendly cat, Chad thought.

  ‘That’s Felix. She’s been awful skittish of late,’ Mavis said. ‘I’ll fix you some lemonade.’

  She disappeared into the kitchen, leaving them to settle into comfortable armchairs around a coffee table. The chair almost swallowed Chad up. He could imagine someone dozing here at the end of a long day.

  Not only did Mavis own a cat, he noted, but she also collected cat ornaments. Hundre
ds of little ceramic statues crowded display cabinets and shelves. Music played in the background, a drowsy jazz piece. Mavis had been cooking apple pie, judging by the sweet smell wafting through the house.

  ‘Have you lived here long?’ Brodie asked after Mavis served lemonade and sat down.

  ‘More than fifty years,’ she said. ‘My husband, Harry, passed away the spring before last.’

  ‘Sorry to hear that.’

  ‘We own the old Cooper place, too,’ she said, nodding in the direction of the house they had passed. ‘It’s a beautiful old building, but people have never wanted to live there.’

  ‘Why?’ Ebony said. ‘What happened?’

  ‘John Cooper, the man who owned it, was involved in organized crime—the Mafia, some say. He and his wife, Maria, and their two kids, Tina and Joe, moved in after leaving the business. Everything was fine in the beginning.

  ‘One day, the milkman went to deliver, and he found the previous day’s milk hadn’t been taken in. No one answered when he knocked on the door. Eventually, the police were called, but the family was nowhere to be found.’

  ‘None of them?’ Dan said, his eyes wide. ‘Where did they go?’

  ‘Nobody knows. Some think a rival gang traveled down here to exact revenge, but there was no blood in the house, and nothing to suggest foul play. It’s as if they vanished off the face of the earth. Harry and I were as much in the dark about them as anyone else. When the house came up for sale, we bought it, thinking it would be a good investment, but we could never rent it.’

  Chad sat back. It was afternoon now. The parlor was warm, and the lemonade sweet. Mavis started speaking about her collection of cat figurines, a subject that Chad found as exciting as listening to static on the radio. He closed his eyes.

  ‘Chad?’

  Blinking, he shook his head. It seemed like hours had passed, yet it must have only been seconds. He must have dozed off. Brodie was glaring at him.

  ‘Sorry,’ he apologized to Mavis. ‘I was more tired than I thought.’

  ‘That’s all right, dear,’ Mavis said. ‘I was just proposing something to young Brodie here. I was saying how nice it would be to have someone staying in the house. Rent-free. All you’d have to do is tidy it up.’