Drawing his sword, the knight started to advance.
‘Or maybe not,’ Brodie added.
He was lightning fast. In a single leap, he crossed the distance between them and swung his sword. Brodie ducked as the deadly blade passed where her head had been. She dived forward, lifted him off the ground, and threw him over her shoulder.
Hitting the ground, he rolled and was back on his feet in a second.
He’s so fast, Brodie thought. I’m not sure I can—
The knight leaped at her, the sword extended. Brodie jumped to one side, rolled, and ran towards the stairs. She gripped a balustrade, pulled it loose, and swung it around just as the knight reached her. His sword slammed into the timber, stuck, and Brodie performed a roundhouse kick to his stomach.
He was thrown sideways, but his sword pulled the timber from Brodie’s hand. She raced to the door, but it was locked. No! Turning, she sprinted for the stairs and started up. At the same time, she glanced back to see the knight dislodging the wood from his sword. Drawing back the weapon, he hurled it at her.
Brodie ducked, and it clanged into the stairs over her head.
That was close.
Snatching up the sword, she threw it at the stained glass window. It shattered, sending pieces of lead and glass everywhere. As the knight raced up the stairs, Brodie climbed onto the railing, balanced herself, and then took a mighty leap through the air, crashing through the shattered window and landing on the grass beyond.
Ugh!
She’d landed badly, twisting her ankle. Rolling, she clambered to her feet and started running, but her foot was in terrible pain. In the distance lay a small village. She might be able to take refuge there.
A massive thud came from behind. Abandoning the sword, the knight had leaped after her and was already on his feet.
Come on, Brodie urged herself. Run!
Chapter Nineteen
Brodie ran towards the village. The houses were adobe, with thatched roofs and small, crude openings. There was no-one in sight. It was probably a good thing. She didn’t need anyone else trying to kill her.
Her foot was hurting, but her fear was greater than her pain, so she ignored it, running faster. The knight was still some distance behind. Rounding a group of houses, she spotted a barn. Racing through the open doors, Brodie scaled a ladder to the mezzanine level. The place was stacked with hay, but there were no horses.
Trying to stifle her breathing, she huddled among the hay.
The knight might pass by without looking inside. If he kept going, she could double back to the castle. Then she could work out a way to escape, providing there was a way to escape.
The knight’s footsteps approached. Brodie saw him pause in the doorway. He seemed to be listening intently, although she wasn’t sure he had ears or even a head for that matter. Slowly entering, his eyes swiveled from side to side, and finally up. Brodie remained motionless.
Finally, he seemed to decide the barn was empty and started to turn away.
Then his arm snaked out, gripping a pole that held up the mezzanine level. With a burst of titanic strength, he pulled it loose. Brodie screamed as the unsupported weight of the floor caved in, sending her crashing to the floor.
The knight’s fist came smashing down towards Brodie’s face. Jerking to one side, she avoided it, and it slammed into the ground. His other fist came down, and she rolled again. Drawing back her legs, she kicked into his midriff, and he went flying out through the door of the barn. She leaped up and sprinted up the street as he clambered to his feet.
He was slow but seemingly unstoppable. Brodie grabbed a hitching rail for a horse, jerked it free, and aimed it like a javelin. Flinging it with all her might, the makeshift weapon flew at the knight, hitting him dead center.
‘Wow,’ she murmured.
The rail had impaled the knight’s chest. Gripping it, he tugged the rail free, revealing a hole in his chest through which Brodie could see to the other side.
How can it survive that? How can it still be standing?
The knight lifted the weapon and flung it at Brodie. It missed her by inches, slamming into the wall of a nearby house. The knight charged towards her. Brodie remained low, waiting till the last instant. Then she sidestepped, tripping him over and jumping on his back.
Pulling with all her might, she pulled at his helmet.
I’m going to beat you, Brodie thought. Even if I have to take you apart piece by piece.
The helmet came free, sending her sprawling. Tossing the helmet to one side, she watched in horror as the remaining body swung about, somehow sensed her location, and ran at her.
Once again, staying low, she gripped the knight’s arm as he swung it around and flipped him over her shoulder.
This is getting tiring, she thought. I’m running out of steam, but he doesn’t slow down!
Twisting the arm, she snapped it off at the shoulder. Without hesitating, the knight swiveled and knocked Brodie’s feet from under her. She hit the ground hard, and then his metal hand was on her throat.
Kicking at him, she tried to free herself, but his grip grew tighter.
Got to break free or I’m dead—
Grabbing the knight’s fingers, she slowly pulled them apart, kicking at his shoulder joint. The remaining arm came loose and went limp. Struggling for breath, Brodie stumbled to her feet and tried to run, but now the knight took a mighty leap into the air. She turned as he came down, smashing her into the dirt.
Then his legs were around her throat, squeezing tightly.
This is ridiculous, she thought. It can’t end this way! Choked to death by a headless and armless knight!
Slamming her feet into his groin gained her another inch. Brodie was able to breathe, but only just. She stood, lifting the knight into the air. Running towards a nearby house, she slammed his torso into a wall. The legs loosened. She did it again. And again.
Finally, a leg came loose and went clattering to the ground. Brodie gripped the remaining leg and swung the torso at the side of the house. It slammed into the wall, and the leg came loose.
Brodie dropped to her knees, trying to breathe.
‘I’ve been in some weird fights,’ she said. ‘But that’s the strangest.’
Leaving the scattered pieces of the knight, she stumbled towards a nearby forest. Her foot still hurt, but she ignored the pain. A sound came from behind. One of the pieces of the knight—the head—was moving across the ground, as if drawn by an invisible thread.
‘You’ve got to be kidding,’ Brodie groaned.
The head clanked back onto the neck of the knight. Next, an arm started towards the torso, but Brodie had already seen enough.
Racing towards the forest, she reached it, breathing hard. A path led into the undergrowth. Only now did she have time to wonder how the knight could still be functioning. Without a head or limbs, it had almost killed her. She mightn’t be so lucky next time.
Stopping at a stream, she hungrily gulped down some water. There was no bird song in the forest. No chirruping of insects in the undergrowth. Only a terrible dead silence as if the whole world were caught in a single instant.
There’s got to be a way out of here, she thought. Her time with the others had taught her to never give up. She would find a way out—or die trying.
Thud.
Something crashed in the forest behind her.
Thud.
Something was coming.
Something gigantic.
Chapter Twenty
The sound of laughter finished the instant Chad entered the room. He had been ready to smash anything that moved, but Ebony’s bedroom had looked identical to how she had left it: neat, clean—and empty.
Turning back to Brodie, he saw the hallway was also empty.
‘Brodie?’
No, he thought. Not again!
He charged from the room, but she was nowhere to be seen.
‘Brodie!’ he cried. ‘Not you too!’
The silence closed around him. He fe
lt afraid. First Ebony, then Dan, and now Brodie was gone. Whisked away as if they’d never existed. At any moment—no—at any second, the same could happen to him.
This would be like the Marie Celeste, he thought. The ship had been found abandoned in the nineteenth century with its entire crew missing. There was never any explanation as to their fate. If I disappear, no one will ever know what happened to us.
Chad felt weak at the knees. Everything had gone wrong from the moment they’d stepped into this house. It’s this house, he thought. I’ve got to get away from it and get help. And there was really only one option.
Axel.
They may have had their ups and downs, but he knew Axel would sacrifice his life to save any of them. Chad stared at the window at the other end of the hall. This wasn’t the time to be discrete. Creating a block of ice, he threw it through the window, destroying it. Then he ran down the hall, creating a fireboard of superheated air beneath him, and flew out.
He wasn’t an expert at flying, but that wasn’t going to stop him now.
I’ve got to get to Axel, he thought. Between the two of us, we can save the others. I’m sure we can!
Chad flew away from the house, over the forest. It would take a few hours to reach Axel. He would do his best to not be seen while in flight. Still, there were so many superheroes flying around these days that the government—and The Agency—couldn’t monitor them all.
A rumble rolled across the landscape. What is that? It sounded like an earthquake. Ahead of him, trees and dirt exploded from the forest as a long black barrier, made of shining metal, emerged from the ground. It stretched out to meet other walls rising up around the town.
Targo was being surrounded on all sides.
Chad cried out in amazement. The walls were rising so quickly that he’d have to be fast to get over the top. He focused again on the fireboard of heated air beneath him, urging it to rise as he watched the top of the nearest wall.
This is crazy, he thought. How can this be happening?
Eight walls were forming an octagon around the town. As the walls rose higher, Chad struggled to keep pace, focusing on urging more power to his fireboard. The wall ahead was five hundred feet high. Then a thousand. Shivering, Chad urged himself to fly faster. It was freezing up here and getting colder by the second.
Still, the walls continued to grow.
He glanced downwards and immediately wished he hadn’t. The landscape looked tiny, like a map. He tried concentrating on the wall ahead, but he couldn’t help but think about the height. Falling from here would turn him into a splat on the ground.
Doubling his effort, he strove to climb higher, but the cold felt like it was leeching through his bones. The wind had gradually increased, and now it built up to a gale. There was no way the wall could still be climbing.
Who has this kind of power? How can they be making this happen?
Chad felt tears in his eyes. He couldn’t reach it. The wall was still rising. Now it was high above the clouds. He gave his fireboard one final push. Veering close to the wall, he looked for a place to grab hold, but it was smooth. If he could hang on for a minute, he could—
Slam!
He had not reached the wall but had instead hit an invisible barrier that had sent him flying. He fell, head over heel.
I’ve got to survive this, he thought. Got to save the others.
Falling at terminal velocity, he would hit the ground within seconds. Spreading his arms and legs, he forced himself to sail on the wind, face down. It was terrifying, staring at the approaching landscape. Focusing on the spot under his body, he created a flame that grew increasingly hotter. Then he created a cold barrier above it.
The ground was frighteningly close—only a few hundred feet—but he concentrated on increasing the board’s heat. His descent was slowing, but not fast enough. With one mighty burst of heat, he gave power to the white-hot fireboard, slowing his descent with one last almighty burst.
Chad was thirty feet above the treetops. Another second and he would have smashed into them. His legs were shaking uncontrollably. Forcing himself to control the fireboard, he coasted to the ground and tumbled off, sucking in mouthfuls of air. Grass pressed against his face.
He wept.
This was beyond anything he could ever have imagined. He wasn’t The Chad. He was a stupid kid thinking he was a superhero! How could he ever believe he could save Ebony, Dan, and Brodie?
He turned over. The wall, fifty feet away, stretched thousands of feet into the air, piercing the clouds. How is this possible? The whole town must be in a panic. No. The whole world must be wondering what was going on in Targo. The police would arrive. Then the Department of Defense. Superheroes and authorities would be here within hours.
Maybe he couldn’t get out, but they could certainly get in.
A distant cry broke through his thoughts. Chad slowly sat up. It was a voice. A familiar voice. Struggling to his feet, he scrambled over vegetation until he met a path. He followed it.
Oh no.
He was back at the Cooper house. Ebony’s voice was coming from the house. His legs shaking, Chad entered the building.
No, no, no.
Ebony was screaming.
Dry mouthed, he staggered into the dining room. The voice was louder now. Ebony was screaming as if in terrible pain.
‘Ebony!’ he yelled. ‘Where are you?’
The sound stopped.
Clenching his fists, he swung about in a fury. The powers that controlled this house—this town—were playing with him! ‘Where is my sister?’ he yelled. ‘Where are Brodie and Dan? What have you done with them?’
Silence.
‘I’ll tear this house apart!’ he snapped. ‘I’ll burn this town to the ground searching for them! I’ll make you pay—’
Chad stopped. His mouth fell open in astonishment as he fell to his knees.
No, he thought. It’s not possible.
But he could see it with his own eyes. The dining room was unchanged from the first time he had entered it, except for one of the paintings. The painting of the green fields near the dark forest had three tiny figures in it—Brodie, Dan, and Ebony. A giant creature, a hundred feet tall, was about to crush them…
Chapter Twenty-One
So, I thought. This is my room.
The house in Kansas where I grew up had been sold, and most of the possessions packed up or given away. My belongings had been brought here. A few things had been taken out to make the room more homely, but most remained in cardboard boxes.
I turned slowly, trying to take in every detail in a single glance. On the table next to my bed was a lava lamp. I’d never taken any particular interest in them, but obviously my pre-Axel self did. And that was going to take some getting used to as well. My name was Adam. Axel was gone.
Boy, this really is a whole new life.
Henry and Louise had already put up some of my old posters. A band called Singing Lizards, another called Fire Head, and some really old bands—Kiss and ACDC. I didn’t know I had such a taste in music.
Slowly, I unpacked the boxes. There were clothes. Most of them looked too small. I’d obviously grown a lot over the last year. The books looked a lot more appealing—a lot of adventure, dystopian fiction, and sci-fi. I must have had an interest in outer space long before I got there.
Turning the pages, I saw plenty of dog-eared corners, a habit I didn’t have in my new life. There was something about the turned over corners that worried me, but I wasn’t sure what.
The games were what you’d expect—Monopoly, Clue, and a few one-hit wonders that didn’t make it past the summer. Opening the Monopoly game, I study the board and the pieces for a moment. My parents and I played this board, sat around it, and shared valuable hours together.
Gripping the pieces in my hands, I tried to evoke a sense of them, a feel for my past life, but I drew a blank. If anything, I felt a sense of disquiet as I studied the pieces.
Why?
&
nbsp; Maybe it was because I couldn’t recognize the person I’d been. Before being transformed into a superhero, I’d obviously been quite different. The process had remade me in ways I hadn’t expected.
My bedroom at the rear of the house overlooked open fields. Henry and Louise were both retired. They’d been potato farmers. A downturn in the market, and the deaths of my parents, had finally made them decide to sell their farm and move to Ohio.
A knock came at the door.
‘Adam?’ Henry said, sticking his head through. ‘How’re you settling in?’
‘Fine,’ I said, although nothing could be further from the truth. ‘Just taking a look around.’
‘You can do more than that,’ Henry said, smiling. ‘This is your home.’
That was going to take some getting used to.
‘Would you like a tour of the place?’ he offered.
‘Sure.’
Heading out the back, Henry explained the property had previously been used to grow hay for livestock. The owner had lost money in the stock market and sold off acreage to cover his debt. The remaining section with the house was too small to produce any sizable crops.
‘We’re thinking about doing some market gardening,’ Henry said, as we strolled across a grassy field. ‘Nothing too big. Tomatoes, carrots, potatoes. A variety of things.’
Living in Ohio would be strange after everything I’d been through over the last few months.
Henry seemed to read my mind. ‘We know about your escapades,’ he said. ‘Or some of them, anyway.’
‘Like what?’
He shrugged. ‘The less said, the better.’ Walking in silence, we followed a path around the property. ‘Though it doesn’t look like you need ever worry about paying for flights.’
I laughed. ‘Not really,’ I said. ‘I can probably give you a ride if you like.’
Now he laughed. ‘I don’t even go up in planes,’ he said.
‘Flying’s still the safest way to travel.’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’ Henry grew serious. ‘I thought your aunt was crazy when she recognized you in that newspaper picture. She insisted on visiting that alien city, almost forced her way in to talk to those aliens.’
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