Teen Superheroes Box Set | Books 1-7

by Pitt, Darrell

  He fired lasers at the shield. It shimmered but remained intact.

  ‘Ferdy is detecting a build-up in Dreadnought’s engines,’ Ferdy said. ‘At this rate, they will explode in less than a minute.’

  ‘And when that happens?’

  ‘Our ship and everyone on board will be killed.’

  ‘Do we have any other weapons?’ I asked.

  ‘There are no other weapons on board this ship.’

  ‘There must be something!’

  We crowded into the ship’s cabin, our eyes scanning the console. How were we going to get out of here? If our weapons didn’t work—

  ‘Thirty seconds till Dreadnought’s engines explode,’ Ferdy said.

  ‘No!’ Quinn yelled.

  We had been so focused on the console that we hadn’t heard the ship’s door slide open. Mister Okada had crept out of the ship and along the jagged slash in the hull. He was still deathly pale, but he gave us a sad smile as he reached towards the force field. It shimmered as he touched it, a rainbow hue shimmering across its surface.

  ‘Fifteen seconds,’ Ferdy said.

  Quinn made a wild rush for the door, but Chad grabbed her.

  ‘You can’t!’ he said, struggling with her. ‘There’s no time!’

  With his free hand, Mister Okada gave us a final wave as he plunged his hand into the force field. Whatever power he held in his Bakari DNA was able to make the force field turn to static. It flickered.

  ‘Ten seconds.’

  The force field evaporated.

  ‘Five seconds.’

  ‘Go!’ I yelled.

  Dan didn’t need my instructions. He already had the ship zooming through the gap and into space. We had barely cleared Dreadnought when our ship shuddered. Glancing back through one of the rear windows, I saw the Tagaar ship tear apart at the middle, white light exploding at its center.

  Our vessel shook again, and Dan struggled to bring it under control. We watched as the Tagaar vessel was destroyed in a series of cataclysmic explosions that reduced it to rubble.

  Brodie punched the air. ‘Yes!’ she said. ‘We made it!’

  I looked back to Quinn, who had fallen weeping into Chad’s arms.

  No, I thought. Not all of us.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  ‘Checkmate,’ Chad said.

  Dan groaned. ‘That’s the third game in a row,’ he said. ‘How do you do it?’

  ‘It’s easy. I’m The Chad.’

  I glanced over from my place on the couch where I had been updating my diary with the details of our latest adventure. Brodie and Ebony were watching a game show on a new widescreen television. Chad had bought it to replace the one he had smashed.

  ‘Ignore him,’ I advised Dan. ‘He keeps a spare queen up his sleeve.’

  ‘Really?’ Dan said, confused. ‘Are you serious or—’

  A week had passed since we had destroyed Dreadnought, and a lot had happened. Upon returning to Asgard, Quinn had shared a conversation she’d had with her father before he died.

  ‘Dad told me the illness on Tagaar was no accident,’ she’d explained. ‘The Bakari had long discussed sending a person infected with a genetically modified virus to the heart of Tagaar. The carrier would be immune, but the virus would be deadly to the Tagaar.’

  The plan had been abandoned because it meant the genocide of an entire species. Carrying out such a plan was completely contrary to the Bakari ethos. There was no way they could do such a thing. It was evil. Totally against everything they believed.

  And yet they did it.

  Mister Okada had realized what it was the moment he’d heard Brantaar mention the illness that had kept many people away from the arena. He knew the Bakari had decided to use their superweapon. He knew they had found the perfect carrier. He knew who was responsible for spreading the virus to Tagaar.

  It was Brodie and me.

  Twenty-Two had told us a tale about us carrying a super-bomb to Tagaar. Most likely, there was no such threat. All he really wanted was to have us at close quarters. It was while we were knocked out that we were infected with the Tagaar plague. Harmless to humans, Brodie and I had carried it to the heart of Tagaar.

  It had seemed an easy escape at the time, and I was right.

  I shuddered when I recalled us passing through the transportation hub in the capital. Tens of thousands of people had been heading from there to destinations all across the Tagaar empire. The virus was probably highly contagious. Probably sharing the same air was enough to infect another person.

  Would the plague kill every last Tagaar? Probably not. Some were holed up on spaceships or planets, refusing contact with their brothers. One day they might develop a cure, but I doubted it would be easy. The Bakari had been around a long time, and their superweapon had been designed to deliver the Tagaar a fatal—and final—blow.

  Brodie and I were responsible for billions of deaths, but we couldn’t blame ourselves. We didn’t know we were infected. Still, I knew there’d be sleepless nights. There would be times I’d wake up and think of the damage we’d unknowingly caused. They were Tagaar, but not every one of them was evil.

  There had been another loss since our return to Asgard.

  Quinn had unexpectedly announced that she was leaving. It happened quickly. One morning after breakfast, she’d packed her bags and told us she was going to make her own way in life. We were shocked and asked her not to leave, but she was insistent.

  I could understand where she was coming from.

  Sometimes you just need a new start.

  Drrrrrrrring!

  The sound from the Asgard speakers broke my reverie.

  ‘What the—’ Chad said. ‘Ferdy? What is that?’

  ‘Someone is at the front door,’ Ferdy said.

  ‘What?’

  We all exchanged glances. We were high up in the Monongahela National Forest. Getting up here was virtually impossible without a helicopter, and even then, the front door was hidden.

  ‘What will we do?’ Ebony asked.

  Sighing, I shrugged. ‘Answer it,’ I said.

  The others followed me to the door. There was no way to see what was outside the door—which was now obviously a serious hole in our security.

  Note to self, I thought. Install a peephole.

  The front door was made from rusty reinforced iron. Pulling it open, it gave a whining creak as I looked out at someone I never expected to see again.

  ‘Mister Brown,’ I said.

  ‘Axel.’ He peered past me. ‘And friends.’

  ‘What...how...’

  He held up a hand. ‘There are Agency forces down in the valley, but they have orders not to attack,’ he said. ‘I’m here to talk.’

  Talk?

  I glanced back at the others. This all seemed so sudden that I couldn’t think of anything to say. It was Ebony who spoke up first.

  ‘Let’s hear him,’ she said. ‘We can blow some things up later if we need to.’

  Chad nodded. ‘That’s what we do best.’

  We stood aside and allowed Mister Brown in. Chad looked ready to head outside to scout around, but I grabbed his arm.

  No. Let’s see what this is all about.

  We returned to the living room, which had been our haven up until a few minutes before. Having Mister Brown here was weird. He’d been responsible for our training when we first acquired our powers. He had been tough, but also a friend. I had always regretted not being able to say goodbye to him.

  ‘Nice,’ he said, glancing around. ‘I like what you’ve done with the place.’

  ‘It was Mister Okada,’ Brodie said. ‘And his daughter.’

  ‘The Bakari?’ Mister Brown said. ‘I didn’t know he had a daughter. Where are they?’

  There seemed little reason to lie, so we explained what had happened.

  ‘So you’re up here all alone,’ he said.

  ‘We’re alone,’ Chad said. ‘But not defenseless.’

  Mister Brown held up h
is hands. ‘I’m not here to make trouble,’ he said. ‘Quite the contrary.’

  We sat around the living room.

  ‘I want to make you an offer,’ Mister Brown said.

  ‘If it’s our own talk show,’ Chad said. ‘We’ve had other offers. In fact, there’s a bidding war from the networks—’

  ‘Chad,’ I said.

  It silenced him.

  ‘Go on,’ Brodie said.

  ‘The governments of the world are grateful for what you did,’ he said. ‘You warned us about the Tagaar and then destroyed their mother ship. Without you, everyone on Earth would be dead.’

  ‘You’re welcome,’ Chad said.

  Mister Brown nodded. ‘We’ve been able to broker an agreement with the Russian government,’ he continued. ‘They’re prepared to drop all charges relating to Axel and his kidnap of the Russian President.’

  This was good news. I’d been blackmailed into kidnapping the President when Brodie was held hostage. After being sent to jail, the others had broken me out, and we’d been fugitives ever since.

  ‘That’s...great,’ I said. ‘And what about The Agency?’

  ‘The Agency wants to make amends,’ Mister Brown said. ‘We lost a lot of forces during the battle with the Tagaar. Frankly, we need all the friends we can get.’ His gaze moved across us. ‘We want you to rejoin The Agency.’

  Chapter Forty-Three

  ‘Rejoin the—’ Ebony stopped.

  ‘That’s right,’ Mister Brown said. ‘Rejoin The Agency.’

  ‘And if we refuse?’ Chad challenged him. ‘If we say no?’

  Mister Brown spread his hands. ‘You’re free to do whatever you want. You can live your lives in peace. Put up your feet and retire.’ He paused. ‘But I don’t think you’ll do that. Retire, that is.’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Chad said, frowning. ‘I think we’re due for a break. Besides,’ he added, ‘why would we want to work for you? You’re the creeps who modified us in the first place.’

  ‘I’m sorry about that,’ Mister Brown said. And he looked it. ‘But you should know this—The Agency is a changed place. We want to make amends.’

  ‘Why do you need us?’ Brodie asked. ‘There must be plenty of other modified humans you can call on.’

  ‘There’s very few, actually, and they don’t have your powers or your teamwork. And let’s face it: you’re good at what you do.’ He paused. ‘Agency forces are diminished, especially after that battle with the Dreadnought. We lost more than eighty percent of our ships. Earth is firmly at the heart of the galaxy now. This time it was the Tagaar. Next time it’ll be some other threat. Working with us will allow you to do the most good.’

  The most good. The words reverberated around my mind. It seemed like a lifetime ago that a dying man in a room had told me to make a difference. I felt like I’d done that.

  ‘And what you’ll get from us,’ Mister Brown continued, ‘is a home, protection, support, and education.’

  ‘Education?’ Chad scoffed. ‘What can you teach us?’

  ‘Everyone needs schooling,’ Mister Brown said. ‘None of you have even finished high school.’

  ‘That’s not our fault,’ Dan said, looking annoyed.

  ‘I know, but we can rectify that.’

  I frowned. Talking about rectifying things...

  ‘What about our real identities?’ I asked. ‘We still don’t know who our parents are—or our real names.’

  ‘Those records were lost some time ago,’ Mister Brown said, ‘but we’ll help you however we can. Of course, the same deal applies to Ferdy. I assume he’s...’

  ‘Ferdy is here,’ Ferdy said, his voice coming from the speakers set into the ceiling. ‘Ferdy is contained within the Asgard complex, but can transfer his consciousness to our new ship—Liber8tor.’

  ‘I was wondering when we were going to name that thing,’ I muttered.

  ‘And the largest crater on the moon is the Aitken Basin,’ Ferdy added.

  Mister Brown stood, and we automatically did the same. ‘I hope you’ll think seriously about what I’ve proposed,’ he said, handing me a business card from his pocket. ‘That’s my number.’

  We returned to the front door. Mister Brown turned back one last time before leaving.

  ‘Whatever you decide,’ he said, ‘there’s one thing I must say.’

  ‘Which is?’ Chad asked.

  ‘Thank you.’

  Then he was gone.

  It was a long time before we closed the door again, and no one spoke as we returned to the living room. I slumped down into the lounge and looked around. Now that Mister Okada was dead, and Quinn was gone, this place seemed different. It was quieter, somehow, and our location here in the mountains felt more remote than ever.

  ‘It’s a trap,’ Chad said. ‘No doubt about it.’

  ‘It’s no trap,’ I said.

  ‘How do you know?’

  There was no way to explain it. ‘I just know,’ I said. ‘He’s serious. The Agency wants us back.’

  ‘Why would we leave all this behind?’

  ‘Why do we do anything?’ Ebony asked. ‘We want to help other people.’ She looked around. ‘Is this the place to do it?’

  Even Chad seemed stumped at that one. ‘But...The Agency?’ he said. ‘They’re the enemy.’

  ‘There is an old saying,’ Ferdy said. ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.’

  ‘So you think we should go?’ I said.

  ‘Ferdy’s intellect is so advanced that he can see multiple future timelines,’ Ferdy said. ‘Those where Ferdy and his friends work with The Agency appear to be the most favorable.’

  ‘And the ones where we stay here?’

  Ferdy said nothing for what seemed like an eternity. ‘There is another old saying,’ he said. ‘There’s safety in numbers. It would be wise to have strong allies.’

  I sighed. Working again for The Agency had never been on our radar, but Ferdy was right in what he was saying. There was safety in numbers. Mister Brown had been right too. We could return to The Agency and get an education. A real education. Being a superhero was cool, but there was nothing smart in being an uneducated superhero. Proper education and training would make us better than ever.

  ‘You know how this works,’ I said. ‘We need to all agree, or we don’t do it.’

  Ebony spoke up. ‘I vote we go,’ she said. ‘Asgard is a great place to hide, but it’s not a great place to live. There’s a whole world out there, and we should be a part of it.’

  Chad shook his head. ‘This is a bad idea,’ he said. ‘But where Ebony goes, I go.’

  ‘Then you may as well count me in too,’ Brodie said. ‘I’m in.’

  ‘Me too,’ Dan said. ‘But they’d better have the latest video games, or I’m leaving.’

  ‘Ferdy?’ I said.

  ‘Ferdy will go. There are many more adventures awaiting us.’

  The others were all staring at me.

  ‘Well?’ Chad said. ‘What do you say?”

  I took one last look around the living room.

  ‘Let’s do it,’ I said. ‘Somebody’s got to save the world.’

  TO BE CONTINUED IN…

  Teen Superheroes

  Book Seven

  The Alpha Project

  The Story So Far…

  I’m a teenage superhero.

  I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t trying to save the world—or myself—but it’s really only a year since my life changed forever. That’s when I woke up in a hotel room with no memory of who I was or anything about my previous life. To make matters worse, there was a badly injured man on the floor in the room beside me. Pushing a book into my hands, he told me my name was Axel, and I had to try to make the world a better place. Then, without saying too much more, he very inconveniently died.

  It wasn’t long before I met other teenagers who’d also lost their memories. We were from different countries and had no idea of our past lives. To make things e
ven crazier, we discovered we each had amazing abilities.

  I can manipulate air. I can ride on it, turn it into barriers, or use it as a weapon to fire at other people. It took a while to master, but I finally got the hang of it. An Australian girl named Brodie—who became my sometimes girlfriend—has martial arts abilities and the strength and speed of three athletes. They say that people with red hair have fiery tempers, and Brodie certainly fitted that profile.

  The next member of our group is Chad. He became one of my best friends as well as being one of the most egotistical people I’ve ever met. He’s Norwegian, and he can create and control fire and ice. He can turn it into weapons, barriers, and even a fireboard that he uses for transport.

  His sister is also amazingly powerful. Her name is Ebony, and she can transmute substances. She has an elf-like face and is naturally quiet. Although, when she needs to say something, she’ll say it. You can’t mistake quiet for shy. They’re not the same thing. Her ability to transmute substances means she can turn a flower into gold or silver or even oxygen. It’s a powerful ability to have.

  Then there’s Dan. He’s a kid from China and a few years younger than us. His abilities are a mixture. In the early days, he had the power of precognition. He could see future events and had a mental connection with the other members of our team. That ability has faded over time, but his other ability hasn’t. Dan can manipulate metals and use them as weapons or as barriers. He’s small but handy in a fight.

  Finally, there’s our friend Ferdy. He’s an autistic savant. This means he has problems communicating with other people, but he’s also a genius. Ferdy was killed during our adventures, but his mind was transferred into our ship's computer system. That ship was an alien fighter ship called Liber8tor, but it was recently destroyed. His essence now lives in our new ship—which we’ve also christened Liber8tor.

  A lot of things have changed over the last year. I’ve kept a diary detailing it all, and I’m glad of it. When I look back over the pages, I’m amazed that we’ve survived all our crazy adventures. One thing I know for sure; I couldn’t have done it alone. It’s only because I’m part of a team that I’ve survived this long.