Trainee Superhero (Book Three) Read online

  “How long?” asks Dark Fire.

  “Seven minutes to minimum charge, eleven to maximum charge,” answers Perth Rose. He looks like he’s been crying.

  “And you’re both sure about this?”

  They nod in unison.

  “Okay. Start the first charge now, the second charge in five minutes. We’ll try rip open an entry for you. The best plan is to hit it as it crosses the parkland if we can. Otherwise just hit it as best you can. Set?”

  “Set,” we all say and we start to move.

  “Wait,” orders Dark Fire, “I know the odds are stacked against us, but they always were. People are relying on us. We can do this. We can!”

  “We can do this,” echoes Never Lies.

  “We can,” says Free Man.

  “Call me Simon.”

  “Set?”

  “Set!”

  Perth Rose pulls a cord on his suit and the bag starts pulsing with light. Dark Fire starts a timer on his arm then waves us into the air. We rise together.

  “Thank you,” Dark Fire calls out, and I don’t think he’s talking to us.

  “I’ll draw the fire,” I say, and race ahead of the others.

  They call me back, but I don’t respond. My shields are back to full, and I know what I have to do. My only real skill as a superhero is taking a beating, so it’s better that the titan focusses on me rather than my friends. I dive and spin as best I can, but the alien titan hits me with everything it’s got. My suit vibrates and rolls under the fire, and all of my alarms start ringing.

  I really need a master switch to mute those things.

  A missile hits me and pushes me to the ground. I have a few seconds of respite to check on my team as they fly over. A plasma storm engulfs Home Brew and he falls right out the sky and crashes into a rooftop bar in a spray of glass. He’s up again in seconds, but then a pair of missiles find him and he falls again. Free Man lands beside him, but then both are covered in green smoke and I lose sight of them.

  Huge missiles fill the air. Simon Smith flies overhead, followed by a cloud of rockets the size of buses. He points at the titan and the missiles arc past him and at the beast. The titan turns its head and blasts two of the missiles out of the air, but the others catch it right between its enormous eyes and stun the beast.

  “Go Simon!”

  A squid-liked alien drops out of the sky and wraps its tentacles around my legs. I blast it and stamp it into pieces. The squid dissolves into an oily green gas.

  “Weird.”

  The gas clumps and reforms, so I blast it again.

  A triclops armed with axes charges at me, and I blast it with my color cannon. Tenchi lands beside me and slaps me on the back.

  “I remember when one of those nearly killed us,” he says.

  “Yeah, now all we have to do is worry about that titan.”

  “And those things,” he says, pointing his sword at three octo-apes and a cube-tank overhead.

  “I’ll take the hit and then the tank,” I say, charging my cannon.

  Tenchi ducks behind me and we leap forward together. The cube-tank hits me in the chest, but I drop Tenchi right into the octo-apes and he cuts into them. I take out the tank with one shot and then land just in time to smash an octo-ape on the head, stunning it. Tenchi shoves his sword through the thing’s chest and cuts until it stops moving.

  I get back into the air just as one of the titan’s massive shoulder cannons fires. It hits me square on and smashes me into the sky. I fly high above the city, spinning dangerously. My shields flicker and die, but my new suit of armor keeps me alive.

  I pull a parachute cord and once again offer a prayer of thanks to whoever is in charge of packing my little lifesavers. I stabilize and start dropping through the air when I see four new superheroes joining us. They are flying in perfect formation, unconcerned about taking fire or conserving energy. I recognize one of them immediately: his poster is probably still hanging above my bed.

  The General has arrived, and he’s brought his friends along. They’re called the Elite Guard and I’m not sure whether I should be celebrating or running right now. They are the best of the best, the most power and beautiful superheroes on the planet, and if anyone can save the day it’s them.

  But there should be twelve of them, not four.

  I swoop towards the titan to where Dark Fire and my team are trying to burn through its neck.

  “The General and his people are incoming,” I say, “don’t know what you want to do about it.”

  Dark Fire drops a purple flare onto the creature’s back.

  “Put your visor down, kid, you don’t want him to see you!”

  We’ve almost cut a hole through the creature’s armor when the Elite arrive. They don’t talk to us, they don’t even look at us, they just swoop down and start dishing out incredible amounts of damage.

  I watch in awe as Golden Zeus uses a lance to cut a piece of the creature’s armor right off, but then he gets hit by a missile and slammed into a building. A second super drops next to me, rolling hard. I fly next to him and help him up as cube-tanks strafe us.

  “Thanks,” he says.

  The name on his suit says Silver Shadows, but Silver Shadows is a bit of a legend and this guy only looks a few years older than me.

  “I have your poster on my wall,” I say, and then immediately feel stupid.

  This is not the time, idiot.

  “Charmed. I’ll sign it if we survive. Now, where’s the boss?”

  I point out The General, but Silver Shadows shakes his head. He sees Dark Fire and lands next to him, adding his own cutting rays to theirs. I cover them as best I can, using my body to shield theirs.

  “…took one down already, but lost most of the team. This one is larger,” says Silver Shadows.

  “Copy. We took one down, too. I have a bomb for this one, but we need to cut through the armor!”

  The titan shakes itself violently, sending us flying. I land hard in a tree, and struggle to get out.

  “On your feet, convict!” yells The General as he flies past.

  He may hate my unit, but at least he doesn’t know who I am.

  He slams into the titan’s side and the whole creature rocks from side to side. He’s doing a lot of damage, but not enough. Golden Zeus is back, teaming up with a superhero called Lion Heart who has a huge red mane He starts blasting away with a plasma cannon, but he’s nowhere near as accurate as Never Lies and he doesn’t achieve much.

  Free Man rushes past me in a blur of energy but is stopped suddenly by a host of tiny seeker missiles. An octo-ape lands on his head but is blown away by Lion Heart is on the ground, surrounded by octo-apes. He punches one into a building, blasts another with lasers and launches a missile that spirals out of control and hits a tree. A cube tank hits him hard, and he doesn’t get up.

  This is not looking good.

  The titan keeps moving, oblivious to everything we throw at it. It will hit the city soon, and all I can think of is those long queues of cars filled with people.

  “This thing isn’t stopping,” I say, “I don’t think we are hurting it.”

  “This titan can heal itself!” Never Lies says.

  “And the Elite Guard are getting their asses kicked!” I say.

  “Is Silver Shadows with the boss?” she asks, and I nod.

  She cuts me out of the tree and we fly back to Dark Fire and Silver Shadows. I see what she means: the creature is growing new turrets and horns as it moves, and heavy plates of armor are sliding over whatever holes we have managed to make in its skin.

  “Saucerhat!” I yell back, but she doesn’t respond.

  “Three minutes still!” she yells at Dark Fire, “and this thing is healing itself.”

  “Focus fire here!” says Dark Fire, and together we burn our way through the red armor. Golden Zeus joins us when he sees what we are doing, but not The General. He focusses on the creature’s massive legs, trying to break them. The titan shudders each time T
he General hits it, but it doesn’t stop.

  Tenchi and I guard the others as they work together to pull up strips of armor up. Simon Smith lands beside me and places a hand on the titan; it shudders and its healing slows.

  A spider-scorpion climbs over the titan’s back and rushes us, but Tenchi cuts it into two. Its tail wiggles across the titan’s back, and I blast it.

  “Does it get worse than this?” Tenchi asks.

  “Sometimes it’s raining,” I say with a smile.

  Together we seem to be making progress. They have stripped away the titan’s metal hide down to the strange metal tubes that form its arteries and muscle. Dark Fire disappears inside the beast, burning his way deeper. He emerges after a few seconds.

  “When I say move, we move!” he says.

  “Time!” shouts Never Lies.

  “Move!”

  We take off together, the faster supers helping the slower ones through the air as we struggle to gain height. The titan fires missiles and lasers up at us but we evade the worst of them. Perth Rose is waiting in the sky, the red bag on his shoulder glowing brightly.

  “Land!” orders Dark Fire, and even the Elite Guard do as he says.

  Dark Fire lands on the grass.

  “Gather!” he yells loud enough that all hear him.

  We land beside him. We are all tired, all injured, all without hope. I don’t think I can even take off again.

  “Ten seconds,” Dark Fire says.

  “We’re too close,” says Never Lies.

  Perth Rose glides out of the sky, down towards the monster, and disappears into the gash we managed to cut.

  No time for escape, anyway. I guess we die here.

  “This would be a good death,” says Dark Fire, “but I’m not ready to die today!”

  He adjusts something on his suit and places his hands on my arm. Power surges through my suit and my shield powers up, expanding into a dome of over-locking green plates. I’ve never felt so much energy in my suit. The rest of the team add their power to my shield until the air is buzzing with blue discs that form a dome around us.

  “Is this going to work?” asks Golden Zeus doubtfully.

  Personally I doubt that it will, but what do I know?

  “You can do this, dude,” says Tenchi.

  “Focus!” orders Dark Fire.

  The titan explodes like a volcano, casting out chunks of burning and liquid metal into the air. The debris rains down on us, hammering my shield. The air fills with smoke and I start coughing inside my helmet. My lungs are burning but I need to keep my shields up to save myself and my friends. I drop down to one knee, but unseen arms grab me and help me to my feet.

  A massive metal leg lands on us, rolling off my shield with a bang loud enough to wake the dead. Somebody swears in an Australian accent. A second shockwave hits us and my shield thins, falters and then fades entirely. I gasp in surprise and power rolls through my body and arcs to the ground. There’s nothing more for me to do, and all I know is that the next hit will be my last. I close my eyes.

  Nothing more falls from the sky, and after a few seconds I relax enough to open my eyes.

  Still alive.

  Silver Shadows is leaning on Never Lies, and I don’t think that either Free Man or Home Brew made it. The other supers limp off, a couple leaping into the sky.

  “What about Three Brothers?” Tenchi asks.

  I had forgotten about her, but that’s okay. She has a few minutes to disarm the bomb, time enough to save herself. We could even help her, if she needed.

  “There she goes,” says Dark Fire, pointing at the small figure rising into the sky. She flies away from the city, away from us, away from any chance of survival.

  “What is she doing?” I yell.

  “The bomb cannot be disarmed,” Dark Fire says quietly, “look away.”

  He doesn’t, and neither do we. I follow Three Brothers until she is a speck in the sky before losing her.

  “She’s entering the clouds,” says Tenchi.

  The explosion tears through the sky in streams of blinding golden light. It’s a minute before the shockwave hits. It's far away, but still strong enough to throw us around. I blink until my eyesight returns. There is no sign of Three Brothers, or of the cloud she flew into. The sky is a perfect blue, and the sun is shining.

  And Dark Fire looks as tired as I feel.

  Lesson Fifteen: Don’t Get Overconfident

  “Stopping the titans was the Elite Guards’ greatest victory. The only lesson we need to take from those battles is how mighty our saviors truly are.”

  -Superheroes Corp official propaganda.

  “I’m seventy-three years old, I’m the most experience superhero alive, and yet I’m still learning new things every day. So don’t get cocky, youngster.”

  -Past Prime, email to Silver Shadows.

  I had always thought winning would feel good.

  The world will never know how many of the Cerberus Brawlers we lost to the titans, or how many injuries we sustained. We had one mass funeral. The steward Bag Pipes played a moving dirge as we said goodbye to some of our best and bravest. There were a lot of fireworks that night, one for each lost hero.

  It was heartbreaking, but the war continues.

  “We will be getting new recruits,” Never Lies tells me at lunch, “but until then we need you to be on call at all times. It’s going to be tough.”

  The next three days are a blur of non-stop missions. Our territory has been increased to most of the world, yet our team has shrunk. We respond to a lot of saucers, but they are mostly small and easily defeated.

  I’ve found my place in the team: I’m the guy who goes in first to distract the enemy and takes a beating while the rest of my team do some damage. It’s not a job that boosts my ego, but I don’t mind. It feels good to have a function, and I can take it. I even took command of a squad for a short time when Born Lucky was knocked out by a missile. I didn’t claim to be as smart as Never Lies, but we did okay. Pet Shark did get covered in some weird green alien goo, which I thought was hilarious until I got covered in it, too.

  The constant fighting is exhausting. I’m one of the few superheroes still capable of going on call, mostly because my mom’s little cyborg enhancements are keeping me alive. The new suit helps, too, but I’m still covered in bruises.

  I’m lying on my bed when Never Lies opens my door and pokes her head in.

  “Not now,” I plead, although I don’t know what she wants.

  “Dammit, trainee, get to the operator area,” Never Lies says, and then slams the door.

  I get up, pull on my orange shirt and walk out of my room. Tenchi is waiting for me in the corridor. He looks as tired as I feel, and one of his arms is in a cast. I don’t even remember that happening.

  “Gatling drake got me when we were in Cape Town,” he reminds me.

  His tat-a-gotchi, the manic red shrew, is half-trapped under the cast. It does not look pleased.

  “Ready for another mission?” I ask, but I know he isn’t, because he needs two arms to swing the massive sword he carries.

  Tenchi cocks his head to one side as if listening for something. I think it might be his little voices again, but I don’t want to ask because I thought he only heard them when he was suited up.

  “I can hear music,” he says.

  I can’t hear anything, but I know we better get moving. I sigh, and we start walking towards the operators’ area. We pass a few stewards and technicians who do their best to keep out of our way, but otherwise the corridors are quiet. We reach an elevator, and it takes us up to the deck in seconds, and I’m surprised that it’s already night-time. I lost track of time on my missions, because we never know if we will land in the night or day.

  It’s a clear night, and the moon is hanging overhead like a great silver eye. The stars are bright out here, so far from civilization. The little kiosks lined up beside the cannons are closed, but I can smell food cooking nearby. Barbeque.


  We enter the operator only area and come face to face with a crowd. Every named operator is here, even the ones who shouldn’t be. Three are in wheelchairs, and Zoo Prank appears to be breathing through an artificial lung. Every member of the crowd is sporting some injury or other, from limb casts to large patches of smooth new skin on hands and faces. Past Prime is here, already walking on a new metal leg. Free Man also survived, although he now sports an eye patch.

  This is a battered crew if ever there was one, but at least we are still alive.

  There are some new faces, including Silver Shadows. I bet The General wouldn’t be pleased to find him here.

  “Dark Fire is missing,” hisses Tenchi, and I realize he’s right.

  Two operators grab my arms and hold me in place. Two more try the same thing on Tenchi, but he twists in their grip and knocks one out with his elbow. He turns towards the operators holding me and raises an eyebrow. They’ve already seen Tenchi in action, so they get nervous and let me go.

  “Let them stand as they like,” Small Talk yells from the crowd.

  The operators release us and somebody laughs.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  Blue fireworks burst into the sky and Dark Fire descends from the night in a cape of flames. He lands on the deck with a thud and all the operators fall silent. The flames covering his body splutter and die as he opens his visor. The deck is silent, waiting for him to speak.

  “My friends,” he says quietly, “we have gathered together to promote two of our trainees to full operators. Both have proven themselves more than worthy to join us. Step forward, Grey Three and Red Five.”

  We step forward. One Trick uses a pair of scissors to cut our shirts off, leaving us bare-chested. We don’t stop her.

  “Grey Three, you are one of the most talented superheroes we have had on the team. You are also the only superhero I’ve ever met who is so scared of flying.”

  That gets a round of laughter, but Dark Fire cuts it off.

  “You came to us because you kept saying that little voices on the radio were telling you what to do. We cannot find any evidence for these voices, yet they still seem to be giving you good advice. We have taken people for stranger reasons, but not often.”