The Twisted Future (Teen Superheroes Book 4) (3 page)

Chapter Five

‘Extinction?’ Ebony repeated the word, ashen-faced.

‘I can’t tell you the details,’ Old Axel continued, ‘but I can tell you this: the man responsible is James Price.’

‘Who’s he?’ I asked.

‘In this era, a scientist. In the future, a dictator. A monster. He has to be stopped.’

Brodie frowned. ‘And how do we stop him?’

‘He has to be killed.’

‘We don’t kill people,’ I said, having already been down this rabbit hole. ‘I once thought I could, but I felt—’

‘I know.’ Old Axel interrupted me. ‘The Russian Premier. I was there, but this is different.’

‘We’re not killing anyone,’ I said flatly.

Chad interrupted. ‘If you’re so keen to see this James Price dead, why don’t you do it yourself?’

‘I would if I could.’

‘And why can’t you?’

‘This time machine is experimental. I was lucky to arrive here at this time and place.’

‘So why not use your powers?’ I asked. 

Old Axel glared at me. ‘Because I don’t have any powers. I haven’t had them in years.’

I was struck dumb.

‘I can’t say any more than that,’ Old Axel said.

I felt the others looking at me. They all knew my powers had worked intermittently; sometimes they failed at the worst times. But to learn I would lose them completely...

‘There’s only one way to prove what you’re saying is true,’ Brodie said, her eyes fixed on the time machine. ‘You’re taking us to the future.’

‘That’s not possible,’ Old Axel said.

‘But it’s happening,’ Ebony said. ‘Either we go to the future to confirm what you’re saying or you go back by yourself.’ She was a quiet girl, but sometimes she seemed to draw on some inner resolve, as if there were another person lurking inside. ‘But Axel—our Axel—is right. We’re not killing anyone based on a five minute conversation with a stranger.’

Old Axel looked like he wanted to argue—or just scream at us—but finally he gave a long, single nod. His eyes swept back to me. ‘It’s risky,’ he said. ‘I can’t fit you all inside the machine.’

Chad turned to Dan. ‘You should stay here,’ he said. ‘Seeing as how you’re the youngest.’

Dan protested. Of course. I watched Old Axel as they argued the point. The longer I studied him, the more I felt like I was watching someone on the verge of exhaustion. Someone who had lived on the edge for too long. ‘We need to get moving,’ he interrupted. ‘The sooner I prove this to you, the sooner we change history.’

‘And I thought we had all the time in the world,’ Chad said.

Old Axel did not smile. ‘Dan, you’re staying here,’ he said. ‘The rest of you into the ship. This should only take a few minutes.’

Dan looked rebellious as we boarded the time ship. He didn’t appreciate being left behind. The interior was similar to an Agency flex craft, but smaller. The dashboard looked unfinished with wires and gauges everywhere. A dial in the center displayed today’s date and geographical coordinates.

Old Axel pulled a component, covered in blue and silver circuitry, from the console. It looked melted.

‘This is the temporal resonator.’ He produced another from a carry bag and slotted it into place. ‘They burn out after only one journey.’

There was only one seat and he took it as we crammed behind. Pushing a button, I saw Dan give a small wave as the hatch sealed shut. It was like being locked inside a tomb.

‘Say goodbye to today,’ Old Axel said. ‘The next stop is the future.’

Chapter Six

Dan watched as the time ship lifted off the ground. It shuddered in mid-air as a black slit appeared over the clearing. The slit increased in size until it was as big as a small house.

When the time ship had first appeared, Dan had thought the hole it passed through was black. Now he saw it looked like oil on water, with rainbows curving about the interior. Ozone filled the air. A breeze pulled at his hair as the time ship eased itself into the hole. The juncture in time and space shrank to a slit, before collapsing at both ends into a dot, and finally nothing.

The jungle closed in around Dan. It had all happened so fast he had not had time to consider the consequences of everyone leaving. Now the others were gone he felt completely alone. He was one small boy on a deserted island in the
middle of the ocean.

Dan
shook off the fear. He wasn’t going to hide. Not when he had an island to explore. He was a modern day Robinson Crusoe, which meant his man Friday was...

‘Ferdy. Are you there?’

‘Ferdy reads you loud and clear, Dan. Egypt is the world’s thirtieth largest country—’

‘Great. I’m going—’

‘—and the most populated in the Middle East.’

‘That’s wonderful, Ferdy. I just wanted to let you know that I’m going explore the island.’

‘That sounds exciting, Dan.’

‘It should be fun.’

‘Watch out for tigers.’

Dan stared into the dark jungle. ‘There are tigers here?’ he asked.

‘Ferdy is making a joke.’

‘Ha ha,’ Dan forced a laugh. ‘That’s very funny.’

Ferdy paused. ‘There is some new information that Dan should know.
Liber8tor
’s sensors are picking up possible structures near the center of the island.’

‘Structures?’

‘From the Latin word,
structura
, meaning—’

‘That’s okay, Ferdy. What direction?’

‘Approximately three miles east of our current location.’

‘Are there people?’

‘The
Liber8tor
senses are not picking up any life forms.’

Which was Ferdy’s way of saying
I don’t know
. Maybe the island was completely deserted, but maybe a cannibal tribe lived here and fed on unwary travelers. He had seen a movie like that once. It was fun and games until the cannibals turned up and started eating people. Then the laughing stopped; it was hard to laugh without a face.

He peered into the jungle. Birds whistled and moved in the upper branches. A shrill shriek ended in a guttural choking sound. Undergrowth moved as something crawled across the ground. An animal raced away between distant branches.

This can’t be a good idea
, he thought. Why traipse off into the arms of hungry cannibals when there are completely good computer games on board
Liter8tor
? Level twenty-six of
Zombie Attack Squad
was calling.

Still, buildings would mean shelter, and shelter might mean beds. Real beds. The Tagaar idea of a bed was something made from reinforced concrete. What he wouldn’t give for a decent night’s sleep on a real bed...

And think of how impressed the others would be when he told them what he had found. They might stop thinking of him as the kid, and decide he should now be known as Metal Man. Or Metallaton. Or Metal...something.

‘I’ll stay in contact,’ he told Ferdy. ‘Let me know if the others return.’

Dan started into the jungle. The undergrowth was dense, but the ground was level. He purposely made a racket as he pushed aside vines and palm fronds; he wanted to alert anyone—or anything—that he was coming. Hopefully snakes or lizards would bolt in the opposite direction.

Unless they were hungry, in which case...

‘Relax,’ he murmured. ‘I may be short, but I’ve got crazy superpowers. I can read minds. Sometimes. And I can control metal—’

Dan looked down. Sure, he could control metal, but he had forgotten to bring anything
made
of metal, which made his power useless.

‘Good work,’ he said. ‘Metal-idiot-boy.’

It was dark under the canopy. The trees grew crazily as if evolution had taken a sideways step; the trunks were huge and the overhanging branches so overflowed with foliage that the ground was almost dark. Vines hung like giant spider webs. Red-and-yellow orchids lurked amongst ferns. Fallen trees, covered in green moss and orange fungi, cracked underfoot as Dan fought his way through the foliage.

Wiping his brow, he reached the base of a large tree. The humidity was unbelievable.
Why didn’t I bring a drink?
Then he noticed a small stream under some nearby palms. He thirstily drank a mouthful.
Refreshing.

Continuing up a hill, he was beginning to wonder if these buildings were just a figment of Ferdy’s computer imagination, when he spotted a gray shape amongst the foliage. He brushed aside some palms. A ten-foot concrete wall, smattered in moss, ran in both directions. He stepped back. Whoever had built this thing was serious about keeping people out. Picking a direction at random, he followed it to a clearing and found the remains of an old road, hopelessly overgrown, leading to pair of rusted metal gates.

What was this place?

The gates were locked, but the chain was rusty and easily snapped when Dan applied his powers to it. He squeezed through and found an overgrown enclosure. An old jeep rusted in a corner; a fully grown palm tree grew from the back seat. A long, low building nestled under trees. Vines grew through the half
-a-dozen broken windows running across the front.

Dan tried
a door. Locked. Focusing on it, he snapped it open. The interior was a large, square room with a closed door on the other side. A broken light bulb hung from the ceiling. The place smelt like compost.

‘Do I really want to do this?’ he murmured.

It would be much easier to return to the ship. Back there waited
Zombie Attack Squad
and comfort, of a kind. But that would be running away, and Axel, Chad and the others wouldn’t hesitate to enter. They would just march straight in.

He sighed. If they could do it, so could he.

He strode across the room. He was about half-way across when the floor cracked beneath him. It shuddered, gave a mighty groan and collapsed.

Chapter Seven

‘Hold on,’ Old Axel warned. ‘This could get bumpy.’

He wasn’t kidding. No sooner had we entered the black rift than the ship tilted crazily.  Crying out, we all crashed to one side. Ebony fell onto me and I held her tightly for a few seconds until the ship
leveled out.

‘Are you okay?’ Brodie asked, frowning at me holding Ebony. ‘I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.’

‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘It isn’t as if—’

‘Cut the chatter!’ Old Axel snapped.

He was a real barrel of fun. We were falling down a corridor filled with long pools of black oil, each ringed by a rainbow loop. The time ship itself was virtually silent, the only sound a gentle hum from the engines.

‘Shame they don’t put in more seats,’ Chad said.

‘This ship is a prototype,’ Old Axel explained. ‘The Agency lost half-a-dozen before they worked properly.’

‘Lost?’ I asked. ‘Where?’

‘Who knows? Some of them started by themselves and disappeared into infinity.’

Disappeared into infinity? I hoped they’d ironed out all the bugs. If something broke, we might end up fighting dinosaurs in the distant past
. Or trying to survive in the far future when the sun has burnt out. 

‘How long will this take?’ Brodie asked.

‘Only a few minutes, but there’s a couple of things we’ve got to cover before we land.’

‘Like what?’

‘The skies are a no fly zone, but we’ll be arriving over the badlands. They don’t monitor the badlands.’

‘The badlands?’ I said. ‘That sounds...bad.’

‘It will give you a chance to see what the future is like. You’ll see why it’s important that James Price be stopped. Permanently.’

The vessel jolted again. Ebony glanced at me, giving me a nervous smile. I liked Ebony. Not like I liked Brodie. I was in love with Brodie. I just wished she weren’t so jealous. I saw Chad give Brodie a sideway’s glance and my stomach gave a small lurch—not brought on by the movement of the ship. Chad was a friend. One of my best friends, despite
being a huge pain in the anatomy. He was probably attracted to Brodie, but he was attracted to just about every girl we encountered.

‘We’re leaving the rift,’ Old Axel said. ‘Hold on tight.’

Unfortunately there was nothing to hold onto, but we braced ourselves against the bulkhead as the ship headed towards a thin line of blue. It grew larger until it filled the entire screen.

Then we were through.

A city lay beneath us—or what remained of it. It looked like a war zone. Skyscrapers were broken, derelict and decaying, with not a single intact window. A lot of buildings had been destroyed by fire. Others were reduced to rubble.

The streets were choked with corroded motor vehicles; chaotic traffic jams, decades old, blocked most streets. Weeds grew through the footpaths and roads. Small fires burnt from a dozen places.

I caught sight of what was once a harbor. The water had turned into soupy white sand. The sky was blue, but unnaturally pale as if bleached. I thought I had never seen anything like this before, but then I knew I had. I knew this place. This was New York—the island of Manhattan. In the distance stood the Statue of Liberty, or what remained of her. The grand old lady had lost her head and both arms. A huge wall enveloped the entire area. Beyond lay a hazy brown mist.

Old Axel cursed. ‘We’re over the city!’ he yelled. ‘I must have gotten the coordinates wrong.’

An object arced over the skyline towards us.

‘A missile!’ Chad yelled. ‘Watch—’

Old Axel yanked the flight stick to one side and we slammed into the bulkhead. Brodie sagged, unconscious as the time ship spun completely out of control. One second I was on the wall; the next I was against the ceiling.

Old Axel fought with the controls. ‘I’m taking us down!’ he screamed. ‘We won’t last a minute up here!’

A building filled the window; I thought we were about to die. At the last possible instant, Old Axel pulled the ship to starboard and we narrowly missed it. I was supposed to be some kind of super-powered human and yet I felt like a ball in a pinball machine. A narrow street, scattered with debris, appeared from nowhere. The vessel drew level with it, bounced twice and slid along the road.

‘Everyone out!’ Old Axel yelled.

This was all happening so fast. We were a tangle of arms and legs on the floor. Chad’s armpit was in my face. Ebony’s foot was jammed in my groin. Old Axel climbed over us and shoved open the hatch. I fell out after him.

‘Hey!’ Chad yelled.

He was struggling out the door with an unconscious Brodie in his arms. A whine came from down the street. Something flashed down the narrow corridor of demolished buildings towards us.

A missile.

I flung out a hand and created a shield—just in time. The missile exploded, raining debris and shrapnel around us. Another missile curved down an alley. Ebony created a metal spear from the air and arrowed it at the weapon. It exploded before it could reach us.

‘We’ve got to get out of here!’ Ebony yelled.

A bright red ball fell from the sky and plummeted into the ground. A shapeless lump of goo. Then it shimmered and expanded into a bright red statue of a man.

‘You’ve violated Agency
airspace!’ he snarled. ‘Surrender yourself!’

‘Talk to my lawyer!’ I snapped. We had only been in the future a few minutes and already everyone wanted us dead. If he was looking for a fight then I was happy to comply.

He flung an arm out and the appendage stretched down an alley, around a tottering brownstone and back to him. It was like he was made from rubber. He pulled tight. The building groaned as he pulled it off its foundations—and straight onto us.