Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7

by Pitt, Darrell

  Nothing!

  Ebony screamed again, but her voice sounded heavy in the room, as if it were muffled. The others couldn’t hear her!

  ‘Chad!’ she screamed. ‘Brodie!’

  It was no use. The floor was up to Ebony’s chest, and then her chin. Taking a deep breath, she watched in horror as the floorboards slipped past her face. Then she was falling. Endlessly. Darkness surrounded her, filled by a peal of terrible laughter that came from all directions.

  Hehehehehe...

  Ebony continued to fall.

  This isn’t possible, she thought. It can’t be happening...

  Ebony closed her eyes. When she opened them next, she saw a leaden sky and a ship’s mast. Saltwater splashed her face. Wind clawed at her as she sat up. She was aboard an old four-masted sailing ship on a vast, stormy ocean. Lightning flashed across the sky. The sun was low, a single spear of light disappearing behind scudding clouds. The deck was wet with rain and saltwater, the sails reduced to rags by the wind and the elements.

  This place may not be real—couldn’t be real—yet she had to treat it as if it were. Ebony focused on creating a weapon. With a tremendous effort, she saw the atoms in the air coalesce into an iron sword.

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Ebony started towards the bridge on the foredeck. There was no crew on board, no-one guiding the ship across this vast ocean. The vessel seemed utterly abandoned. Next to the ship’s wheel was a metal plaque set into the decking with writing on it: The Eight Hands. Putting down her weapon, she tried moving the ship’s wheel. It slowly turned.

  Cra-ack!

  Thunder rolled across the sky. The horizon disappeared behind waves that heaved like mighty mountains. Through a gap in the waves, Ebony saw an island in the distance. The ship was turning, so she struggled with the wheel, aiming it towards the island.

  Hehehehehe...

  The laughter came again, carried by the wind. Snatching up the sword, Ebony’s eyes searched the decks. At first, she saw nothing, but then movement on the ragged masts caught her attention. A huge shape swung from one mast to the next.

  What is it?

  Shaped like a person, it was bigger and completely black.

  Ebony swallowed. She had rarely felt so terrified in her life. But then her courage returned, like a flame fanned by the wind.

  I’ll survive this or go down fighting.

  Almost in response, the shadowy figure grasped a cross mast, snapped it free, and threw it towards her. Ebony leaped clear as it slammed into the steering wheel, destroying it. Grabbing the mainmast, Ebony turned a section to air, severing it in two. The mast toppled sideways like a mighty tree.

  Ka-thump!

  Crashing into the deck, the mast flipped over the side, throwing the shadowy figure into the heaving water. Ebony went to the edge but lost sight of it immediately. Now she turned her attention to the shoreline. The Eight Hands was nearing a rocky platform adjoining the island. The ship was almost on it. Grabbing a timber railing, Ebony hung on tightly until—

  Kra-ack!

  The ship lurched wildly to one side, throwing Ebony to the deck. The ship had hit the rocks, and it sounded like the vessel was being torn apart. Lightning splintered the sky as she struggled to her feet and staggered to a railing.

  The damage wasn’t as bad as she’d first imagined. The ship’s bow was precariously balanced over the edge of the rocks. Water poured in through a hole in the vessel as waves crashed over the starboard side. The ship was sinking, but she still had a few seconds.

  Finding a place where some rigging hung over the side, she started down but was still about six feet from the rocks when the vessel started to slide back into the water. Yelling, she released the ropes, hit the rocks, and rolled.

  The wind and the rain lashed at Ebony as the vessel gave a final groan before disappearing beneath the waves. Soon there was only the top of the broken mast, and then this was swallowed by the heaving sea.

  Cold and wet, Ebony turned back to the island. The sun was cresting the horizon, and she didn’t fancy being stranded on this rocky platform at night. Sliding on the wet rocks, she carefully made her way to a narrow strip of sandy beach. Waves rushed up and down the beach as she stared at a dark forest that lay within the island.

  The sky was getting darker by the moment. Ebony had no idea how she’d ended up in this weird place, and she had no idea how the others would find her. It was as if she had fallen into some kind of side dimension.

  I could be here a long time, Ebony realized, with a sense of growing dread. Maybe forever…

  Chapter Fourteen

  Ebony awoke to the sound of screaming. She sat upright, staring about in terror, completely lost. Then the memories came crashing back: the house, the ship, and the forest.

  The night had passed, giving way to early morning. Mist filled the forest, swirling about the trees and reducing visibility to a dozen feet. A distant creature—an ape, perhaps—was screeching. Its cries had woken her.

  Ebony tried to make a titanium spear. With enormous effort, the atoms in the atmosphere slowly came together, forming a weapon three feet long, the end razor sharp. She let out a sigh of relief. For a moment, she thought her powers weren’t going to work.

  Come and get me, she thought. I’m ready for anything.

  Then she stood. Ouch. Her whole body ached. She was ready for almost anything. Ebony had spent the night curled up against a rock, with a palm overhead to protect her from the rain.

  She sighed. What she wouldn’t give for a shower. And a soft bed. And a big breakfast.

  What she wouldn’t give to be away from here...

  Going to sleep, Ebony had wondered if this whole thing were just some kind of illusion, but she now dismissed this idea. She was in too much pain for this not to be real. Somehow, she was in a real place with real problems. Escaping this place was on her shoulders.

  The creature in the forest gave another high pitched scream, and Ebony started in the opposite direction. Whatever it was, she wanted to be far away from it. Pushing aside ferns and palms, she made her way through the misty forest.

  Ebony heard running water. Quickening her pace, she reached a river. A thick log lay across it. The river wasn’t wide—only about twenty feet across—but it was deep and fast flowing with smooth rock edges. Ebony couldn’t see the bottom. She dreaded to think of what lived beneath the surface.

  Another scream came from behind Ebony. Whatever the creature was, it was closer than before. The mist was thicker too. Starting across the log, Ebony quickly dropped to her knees. The log was very slippery. Edging across with the makeshift spear made it even more difficult.

  Okay, she thought. Take it slow.

  A scream came again.

  Turning, Ebony saw a tremendous shape moving in the jungle mist. Much larger than a fully grown person, it was covered in long, white fur. Emerging from the jungle, Ebony spotted two taloned hands gripping the end of the log.

  She was halfway across the log. Ebony levitated her weapon, ready to hurl it at the creature. ‘Stay where you are!’ she yelled. ‘I don’t want to hurt you, but—’

  The end of the log lifted. Ebony still couldn’t see the creature clearly because of the mist, but knew she’d be in the water in a second. And what was in the water? Women-eating fish? Anything was possible in this crazy place.

  Ebony arrowed the spear into the creature. It roared in fury and lifted the log even higher. She fell backward, almost slipping over the side. Throwing caution to the wind, she struggled to her feet and ran.

  Only ten feet to go, she thought. Only five feet—

  The creature twisted the log, and she slid off the side. Her head hit the log, and she saw stars. Then she was in the water and being swept along by the current. It was freezing. Rising to the surface, she saw the river walls slipping past.

  I’ve got to get out, but there’s nothing to grab!

  Glancing back, she saw the monster, the spear still in its chest, loping through the fog alon
g the side of the river. Ebony still couldn’t see it clearly, but she could hear it. The beast was shrieking with pain and anger. Swimming to the opposite side, Ebony flailed against the smooth river wall.

  Now there was another sound, possibly even more frightening than the creature. She glanced downriver and saw a massive spray of water, accompanied by a roar. It could only be one thing—a waterfall.

  I’ve got to get out of here, she thought. But how?

  Then she realized. What an idiot I am! I can transmute substances! I can turn this water into a solid.

  Trying to transform the water into silica, she realized she couldn’t concentrate enough to make it work. If she could remain stationary for long enough, she could focus, but that was impossible. She spied a rock in the middle of the stream.

  Forty feet.

  Thirty feet.

  She stretched out and gripped the edge of it as she swept past.

  Got it!

  Copper, she thought. Copper!

  Slowly the surface of the water began to transform to reddish copper. The river continued to flow under it, but she kept concentrating, creating a bridge from the rock to the riverbank.

  Puffing with effort, Ebony dragged herself onto the makeshift bridge. She was exhausted. Water continued to rush past the other side of the river. Her bridge had formed a bottleneck, and the torrent on the other side was tremendous. Peering into the mist, she saw no sign of the creature. Either it had given up, died, or was sulking in the forest. For the moment, at least, she was safe.

  Gingerly making her way across the bridge, she pushed back her hair, shivering. She was cold, hungry, and tired. And the day had only just begun.

  Slam!

  The bridge beneath her shook so violently she was almost thrown off. Turning, she saw white feet, hairy legs and—

  She gasped.

  Covered in white, shaggy fur, the beast’s arms and legs were long and articulated like a spider. It had seven razor-sharp talons on each hand. But it was its head—or lack of a head—that was most terrifying. There was simply a bulge across its shoulders. Beneath the bulge was a row of six eyes, and under this, a ridged hole lined with stubby teeth.

  Ebony stared, stupefied by the bizarre creature. What insane sidestep in evolution had created it, she didn’t know. All she knew was that she had an instant to stop it before it pounced. Dropping to her feet, she touched the copper bridge and focused on the section under the creature.

  ‘Oxygen,’ she said.

  The bridge evaporated, and the creature dropped, screaming, into the water. Clawing helplessly at the moving river, it was dragged away by the current. Within seconds, it was swept over the edge. Its scream briefly cut across the crash of the tumbling water before it was stifled forever.

  Her legs shaking, Ebony continued to the embankment. She wanted to collapse among the ferns, but she knew it wasn’t safe. Nothing here was safe. The only way to stay alive was to keep moving.

  Cutting through the forest, she was relieved to see the mist was starting to clear.

  Crash!

  Ebony groaned.

  ‘What now?’ she asked.

  A tree came tumbling down a hundred feet from where she stood. A colossal shape was forcing its way through the trees, pushing them aside like matchsticks. It would be on her in seconds.

  Something was coming.

  Something big.

  Chapter Fifteen

  ‘Ebony’s gone,’ Brodie said. ‘But where?’

  By the time Dan arrived home, Brodie and Chad had already turned the house upside down. They spent another hour searching for Ebony, but she had vanished entirely.

  ‘What will we do?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Let’s ask Ferdy,’ Chad suggested. ‘He may be able to track down her communicator bracelet.’ He tapped his bracelet, but got no answer. ‘He’s not picking up.’

  ‘Then we’ll go to him,’ Brodie said.

  They followed the path through the forest to the clearing where Liber8tor had landed.

  ‘Ferdy!’ Brodie called out.

  The ship was cloaked, of course, but when she didn’t get an answer, the team started wandering about in search of it. It only took a few seconds to arrive back where they had started.

  ‘The ship’s not here,’ Brodie said. ‘Ferdy’s gone!’

  ‘He wouldn’t just leave us,’ Dan said.

  ‘Maybe he left because Agency ships were closing in,’ Chad said.

  ‘And not tell us?’

  ‘There may not have been time.’

  Brodie didn’t like the look of this. She couldn’t imagine any situation where Ferdy would abandon them. Trying her communicator bracelet again, she still had no success. This was bad. Very bad.

  ‘Let’s search the house again for Ebony,’ she said. ‘If we don’t have any luck there, we’ll head back into town.’

  ‘How will that help?’ Dan asked.

  ‘I’m not sure, but whatever is happening at the house seems to be happening in town too.’

  After another fruitless search of the Cooper house, they started back towards town. Passing Mavis’s home, they saw her heading back inside after having done some gardening. They asked if she’d seen Ebony.

  ‘No,’ Mavis said. ‘Maybe she’s gone for a walk in the forest.’

  ‘I don’t think so,’ Brodie said.

  Mavis frowned. ‘Several people have gone missing over the years,’ she said. ‘It’s been quite strange.’

  ‘What?’ Brodie said. Now is not the time to be finding this out. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Clara Johnson’s son went missing last year,’ Mavis said. ‘And a family of three—the Wilsons—went missing the year before. And, of course, there’s always the Coopers.’

  Brodie asked Mavis for Clara’s address, and they continued down the street.

  ‘If she weren’t an old woman,’ Brodie said, ‘I would have yelled at her.’

  ‘Would have been helpful to know weird things were happening before we moved in,’ Chad agreed.

  ‘I think we should meet up with this Clara Johnson. Her son’s disappearance may be linked to what’s happened to Ebony.’

  They tracked down Clara Johnson’s home, an old weatherboard, similar to Mavis’s place, but with a lawn so green that Dan checked to see if it was plastic. An elderly lady, wearing thick-rimmed glasses, answered the door.

  ‘We understand your son went missing some time ago,’ Brodie said.

  ‘That’s true,’ Clara said, frowning in confusion. ‘What’s that to you?’

  Brodie had already concocted a lie. ‘My father was a private investigator for many years,’ she said. ‘We’ve just moved into the old Cooper place. When I heard about your son, I wondered if we might be able to help.’

  ‘That’s very kind of you,’ Clara said. ‘The local police have been hopeless. Bert Wilmont, the chief, couldn’t find a fish in a barrel.’ The woman led them inside to a living room that smelt of lilac. Photos of a blond-haired boy decorated the mantle. ‘It’s been three years since I last saw Garry. He’d always had an interest in models and liked building replicas of the Apollo and Gemini spacecraft.’

  Brodie peered at Garry’s photo. ‘He’s a good looking guy,’ she said.

  ‘The girls always thought so,’ Clara said, smiling sadly. ‘He was pottering about in his room, building a diorama of the moon landing when he disappeared.’

  ‘Did anything else unusual happen?’ Brodie asked.

  ‘Not at all. Garry had his music playing. It was a lovely spring day. There was nothing to suggest anything was wrong. Or strange. After a few hours, I went up to see if he wanted anything to eat. He didn’t answer when I knocked on his door. It didn’t make sense. His music was still playing, and a half-completed model was on his desk, but there was no sign of him—then or now. Garry simply disappeared off the face of the Earth.’ She wiped away angry tears. ‘The police conducted some sort of search, but they never found anything. My son was written off as a runaway
teenager.’

  Chad cleared his throat. ‘Do you have any theories as to who—or what—may have caused his disappearance?’ he asked.

  ‘I do,’ Clara said. ‘A company opened up on the west side of town, a scientific research firm, not long before he went missing.’

  Brodie wasn’t sure why there’d be any link between the disappearances and the new business. The Coopers had gone missing years before. Still, it was the only lead they had. ‘What’s it called?’ she asked.

  ‘Cytron Engineering,’ Clara said, giving them the address. ‘But make certain you’re careful.’

  ‘We will be.’

  After they left, Dan turned to Brodie and Chad excitedly. ‘That Cytron Engineering must have something to do with Ebony’s disappearance,’ he said.

  ‘Not so fast, pipsqueak,’ Chad said. ‘That’s only a guess.’

  ‘It makes more sense than ghosts.’

  Chad shrugged. ‘I won’t argue with that.’

  It only took a few minutes to reach the address Clara had given them. It turned out to be a modern residential brick house on the outskirts of town. It looked similar to the other buildings around it except for a business sign on the front lawn.

  ‘This is the place,’ Brodie said.

  ‘What will we do?’ Dan asked.

  ‘Smash the door in. Chad can turn people into blocks of ice while we pull the building apart.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘No,’ Brodie said. ‘We’ll knock on the front door. What else can we do?’

  She knocked, but there was no answer. After knocking twice more, she turned to the others. ‘Looks like no-one’s home,’ Brodie said. ‘It’s a shame these door handles break so easily.’

  Snapping it off, she pushed the door open to reveal a clean and tidy hallway. A faint chemical smell lingered in the air. The living room and kitchen were at the front with a staircase leading up to bedrooms. Another door led down to the basement.

  ‘I wonder what’s down there,’ Chad said.