The Battle for Earth (Teen Superheroes Book 3) (2 page)

Chapter Two

“Unlucky us.” I peered down over the city. “Why do we end up with all the weirdos?”

The robot stood as high as a city building. It looked vaguely like a giant spider, although it had only six legs and was made from a variety of shiny metals. Its body was circular in shape whereas its head was a perfect oval. At the front of that oval lay a wide, black windshield. Behind it, presumably, sat the crazy person in charge of the monster.

We were in a Flex Fighter, zooming in low over the city. There were five of us in the aircraft: myself, Chad, Dan, Ferdy and Ebony. Brodie had gone shopping earlier that day and she had not answered any of the frantic calls made to her cell. Obviously she had her phone off and her wallet open. This hadn’t worried me, but Agent Palmer – our immediate supervisor at The Agency – had not been happy.

I stared down at the monstrosity, glad that Brodie would not have to face this creature.

“How big is that thing?” Ebony asked.

The thin, blonde girl hovered at my elbow.

“It’s over fifty feet tall,” Chad replied. “Maybe a hundred.”

“It’s nothing Team Incredible can’t handle,” Dan said.

The four of us looked at him. Dan had been coming up with names for our group for months. Some of them had quite a ring to them, but this one had about as much tune to it as a garbage bin thrown down a flight of stairs.

“Team Incredible,” Ebony echoed. “Wow. I wonder if that’s already copyrighted.”

“Ferdy will help.” Ferdy’s eyes were fixed on the giant robot. “Ferdy can smash the robot into pieces.” He peered through the window. “The Titanic sank on the twelfth of April, nineteen hundred and twelve.”

“Sure, Ferdy,” I said. Ferdy’s autism made him difficult to work with sometimes. Trying to battle a giant robot could prove dangerous. “We’ll see how things pan out.”

I peered back down at the robot below. It had appeared only minutes earlier on the famous Sunset Strip, burrowing its way out of the ground like some sort of enormous groundhog. It had begun by picking up cars and flinging them about like toys before turning its attention to the famous Luxor Hotel.

Already, the mighty obelisk and the one hundred and ten foot high recreation of the Great Sphinx had been reduced to rubble. Now the metal creature lumbered across the wreckage toward the mighty pyramidal-shaped hotel.

“There are thousands of people within that building,” I said. “If it crashes into the Luxor –”

“Bring us in to land,” Ebony ordered the Flex.

The voice-activated aircraft immediately swooped in low and settled close to the scene. The aircraft was a new experimental design; its computer system operated via a new bionugenic gel. It was supposedly faster and more responsive than any other craft developed by The Agency. The back of the aircraft opened and we piled out into the midst of a debris-ridden street. Several vehicles had been thrown into nearby buildings. A tourist bus lay on its side. Bodies were strewn all over the road. Smoke began to billow from the interior of the transit vehicle.

“That bus has still got people in it,” Chad said.

“I’ll see to it.” Ebony grabbed Ferdy’s arm. “You come with me.”

Good
, I thought.
We’ll focus on the robot.

We raced through the debris toward the enormous metal creature. It had almost reached the mighty hotel. I could see people streaming out of the structure as the sound of an alarm drifted distantly through the warm air. It looked like a full-scale evacuation was in progress.

“We need to stop that thing,” I said.

“I’ll get its attention,” Chad said.

He drew back his arm and formed a fist. As he punched, we saw an enormous ball of ice form in mid-air and fly directly toward the robot. It smashed into the back of its oval head, bringing it to a halt. The robot turned about with amazing speed, its head finally focusing on us.

“I think that worked,” Dan said.

Two machine guns jutted out of its mouth.

“Look out!” I yelled.

I threw up an air shield as it fired, and the bullets ricocheted harmlessly away from us.

“We need to split up!” Chad said.

That was the last thing I felt like doing, but he raced away before I could reply. Chad not only had the power to control fire and ice, but he also had to ability to be incredibly annoying! And he did it so easily! There were times I would have happily unleashed a metal robot on him myself.

I cast a helpless glance at Dan. He shrugged and raced off in the other direction. Great. Instead of organising a co-ordinated assault – as we had practiced hundreds of times in training – we were attacking the creature separately.

Really clever.

I started forward. Fortunately, the robot seemed mostly focused on me, firing intermittently in my direction. My shield held. Over the last few months I had suffered problems with my powers. My abilities inexplicably – and usually at the worst times – would suddenly cut out. Doctor Williams, a scientist back at The Agency, had been examining me without coming to any conclusions. Fortunately my powers had not failed at a vital time.

Not yet, anyway.

I built up a burst of hurricane wind and flung it at the creature. It barely impacted the creature. In fact, its only response was to retract the gun barrels. A single, long barrel appeared and pointed directly at me.

Oh, oh.

The cannon fired. I had my shield up, but the blast of it still threw me backward. Colliding with a section of broken wall, I hit my head and my vision shuddered slightly. Whoever built that thing certainly knew how to pack a wallop.

Clambering to my feet, I built up another concentrated burst of wind, but before I could fire it I saw pieces of metal rocket through the air toward the robot. Balls of fire began to batter it from the other. Obviously the others had begun their attack.

The robot responded by swinging its head about and firing at them. Chad and Dan were beyond my range of vision; hopefully they were hidden somewhere among the enormous piles of rubble. I started forward again.

Firing a blast of wind at the creature had not affected it at all. I wondered if a single, focused gust might be enough to do some damage. I created a sphere of air the size of a cannonball and aimed it at the head of the creature. This time I saw it shudder under the impact.

Mind you, it shuddered. That doesn’t mean it rolled onto its back and died, because it didn’t. The three of us continued our attack, but the robot merely retaliated by alternating its fire between the three of us. I caught a glimpse of Chad taking refuge behind a pile of debris. Normally he acted as if he could take on the world himself – hell, sometimes I thought his head was the size of a planet – but even he looked concerned.

“Chad!” I yelled. “Freeze the leg! The leg!”

Chad looked up, saw me and nodded. He pointed at the leg nearest him and within seconds it had turned white. This was a new technique we had been practicing. Normally he just produced ice. Instead, he had been training to produce its companion – cold.

“Do it!” he yelled.

I fired another blast. Aiming for the leg, this time the limb instantly shattered into thousands of pieces. The robot stumbled. Discus-sized pieces of metal crashed into the other front leg of the creature. I still could not see Dan, but he had obviously guessed our strategy. Within seconds the second limb collapsed under the creature.

Still, the monster had plenty of fight left in it. Whereas it had relied purely on its weaponry to take us out, now it turned to good old-fashioned brute force. It staggered straight toward me. I turned to jump out of its way, but one of its legs struck me a glancing blow and I hit the ground. It raised its leg again. I rolled out of the way just as its claw foot slammed down.

Crunch!

The limb lifted again and came crashing down. This time I rolled to the left. It missed me. I had to get up and get away from here, but there was debris on all sides. I formed a barrier as the leg arrowed directly toward me.

I let out a cry. The claw foot was pushing against my shield. It was three feet from my face. Two feet. Now only inches –

The entire robot shuddered and stopped. I heard the sound of an explosion; the leg lifted and I watched in amazement as the entire creature toppled to one side.

What had happened?

Dan appeared. “Did you see that? I must have hit its control mechanism!”

“That’s good, Dan,” I said.

Slowly rising to my feet, I felt a little embarrassed. Dan was the youngest of our group, but it looked like he had finished off the monster. I saw a row of disks had impacted the creature’s side. One of them must have hit a vital system.

Chad raced over.

“Did you see that?” he asked. “Frozen one second! Toast the next! Yet another bad dude brought down by The Chad!”

The Chad?

“Brought down –” Dan was speechless. “I’m the one who finished it off.”

“You? Don’t be ridiculous, punk. It was me who –”

This was one argument I wasn’t getting into.

“You both did great,” I said. “Now we need to find the clown who was operating this thing.”

That didn’t take long. Within minutes we had found a rear hatch to the robot. Dan used his metal manipulation abilities to wrench open the doorway. Inside, we found a small man wearing glasses cowering behind his control seat.

“I’m Doctor Robot!” he screamed. “I’m the greatest super villain the world has ever seen!”

“You’re an idiot,” I told him. “One of many.”

We took him back to the street and handed him over to the police. The officers didn’t bother asking our names. They knew we wouldn’t tell them and it was a waste of time. I could see the media in the distance. It was best if we got moving.

We headed in Brodie and Ferdy’s direction. It looked like they’d been busy. The tourist area was a scene of utter chaos. Debris all over the road was making it difficult for emergency service operators to get to all the injured. The fire on the burning bus had been put out and the passengers evacuated. I caught Ferdy’s eye. He was kneeling next to a man lying in a twisted heap on the street.

I hurried over to them.

“This man is hurt,” Ferdy said. “He is bleeding.”

I knelt next to the stranger. He was covered in blood. It looked like Ferdy – or someone – had applied a makeshift bandage to his wound, but blood was still flowing. The man tried to speak and I gently took his hand.

“Help is on the way,” I said. “The ambulance officers are almost here.”

“Not…going to make it…not…” the man tried to speak.

“You’re going to be fine. Just hold on.”

It was a lie and I knew it. Within seconds the man’s eyes fluttered and a single tear ran down one side of his face. He stared up at the sky without comprehension.

A hollowness opened up within me. At the edges of that hollow feeling lingered hot anger. I didn’t know this man, but he was someone’s son. Maybe he had a wife and family. Now he would never see his family again because fate had placed him in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I arranged the stranger’s hands on his chest and wiped the single tear from his face.

The ambulance officers arrived a few seconds later.

Too late. Far too late.

I felt numb as Ferdy and I walked back to the Flex Fighter. As we drew near, Ferdy stopped and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“The man died,” he said.

“Yes. He died.”

“Approximately one hundred and fifty thousand people die each day.”

I nodded absently. “If you say so.”

“You wiped the tear from the man’s face,” Ferdy persevered. “You straightened his clothing. You laid his hands on his chest.”

I looked down at my own hands. They were covered in the stranger’s blood. I had seen people die before now – I had even been the cause of some of their deaths. Still, there was no getting used to seeing a person lose their life.

“The man deserved respect,” I said. “He may have had a wife…a family…”

“But he was dead.” Ferdy looked confused. “He could not know you would wipe the tear from his face. He could not know –”

“Ferdy. How you die has got to be at least as important as how you live. It has got to mean something.”

We made our way back to the Flex in silence. I wasn’t sure if Ferdy had understood me. We climbed aboard the aircraft. No one said anything much as the plane lifted up into the sky. I closed my eyes as we were swept away from the devastation and arced across the city toward the desert.

Chapter Three

“I heard it got rough out there,” Agent Palmer said.

They were the first words she said after we landed. She had been monitoring the situation via news reports. The Flex Fighter had come in to land in a cave located at the southern end of a small valley away from the lights of Las Vegas. From here, a high speed transporter would return us to the heart of the city.

“It was nothing I couldn’t handle,” Chad said. “I am, after all, a superhero.”

“You are, after all, an idiot,” Ebony said.

Chad shook his head in dismay. “My own sister mocks me.”

“With good reason,” she said.

Agent Palmer caught my eye. “How are you?” she asked.

“Okay.”

“Really?”

“There was a lot of carnage out there today.” I couldn’t get the dead man’s face out of my mind. “A lot of people got killed.”

“A lot more would have been killed if you hadn’t been there.” The agent turned to everyone. “Well done. These sorts of crazies seem to be on the increase.”

She didn’t need to tell us that. Ever since the United Nations had announced that mods were on Earth – and had been for centuries – there seemed to be some new threat every day. It had made me wonder more than once if our existence wouldn’t have been better kept a secret.

We made our way over to what appeared to be a normal elevator. I climbed in with a sigh. I wanted a shower; the dead man’s blood was still all over my hands. The others looked a mess as well. The lift started off with a slight pull; we were moving in a sideways direction at several miles per hour. How the thing operated without plastering us to the back of the lift was beyond me. It worked. That was all that mattered to me. Just as long as I didn’t have to walk back to town. Anything was better than that.