Earth Attack (5 page)

He points at you and pulses of swirling, fiery gasballs streak towards you. They’re like small stars, you think, before they burst around you filling the air with powerful shockwaves. You are sent spinning through the vast chamber. You eventually crash into an observation window and slump to the floor. You stagger to your feet.

“You cannot defeat me!” says the Starlord, laughing loudly.

If you wish to attack with your eGun,
go to 38
.

If you wish to attack with your ice power,
go to 29
.

If you wish to try to escape,
go to 11
.

“Attack with fire,” you order.

Streams of flame shoot out from the suit’s weapons system, engulfing your enemies in a fireball that fills the corridor. You see them melting before your eyes! But your sense of victory lasts just seconds.

In the confined space of the corridor, the fireball explodes and you too are hit by the flames. The intense heat causes the suit to catch fire and instantly begin to melt. “Systems failing,” warns the suit. “Systems fail…”

Your skin is exposed to the fire and you feel the heat of the flames. Then thankfully there is no more pain as you slip into blackness.

You are dead. To begin your adventure again,
go to 1
.

You evade the creature’s attack and send another deadly stream of energy bolts at it. Again you hit your target! This time the creature succumbs to your attack as it explodes into a million pieces. You shield yourself from the flying debris.

When you look up, there is no trace of the monster. It has become what it once was: part of the Earth.

You head back to the OPS room where QTee, Agent Roberts and Agent Lee are looking very worried.

“What’s the problem?” you ask. “I dealt with the creature, didn’t I?”

QTee points at the comm-link screen. “We have a bigger problem…”

Go to 30
.

The light fades away and the roaring noise stops.

So this is what being dead is like, you think.

“Welcome back!”

You look up. QTee is standing over you, smiling. You are back in Area 61!

Agent Roberts and Agent Lee help you to your feet. You step out of the DART suit.

“What happened?” you ask.

“The suit defaulted to teleport mode,” QTee answers. “As soon as the Deathworld comm links were destroyed, we got a fix on you, and here you are!”

“But I was ripped apart by the vortex bomb.”

“And put back together when you teleported!” smiles Agent Lee. “You said it yourself, the teleport in your DART suit scrambles your atoms and reassembles them somewhere else. All that happened was that the vortex bomb did the first part for it!”

You shake your head. “What about Tyranno and the Deathworld?”

“Gone into another dimension,” replies QTee. “Perhaps into many dimensions, scattered across time and space.”

“Do you think he will be back?”

Agent Roberts shrugs. “QTee says not. Me, I’m not so sure. You never know with this job who will pop up next! Anyway, it’s time for you to take some rest.”

You smile. “Yeah, saving the planet can be a bit tiring!”

Your quest to defeat Tyranno is over, but you know that out there somewhere will be other challenges, and other enemies that you will have to deal with. But whilst you have the DART suit, Earth is safe…for now.

“The 2Steves” are Britain’s most popular writing double act for young people, specialising in comedy and adventure. They perform regularly in schools and libraries, and at festivals, taking the power of words and story to audiences of all ages.

Together they have written many books, including the
Crime Team
and
iHorror
series.

Jack Lawrence is a successful freelance comics illustrator, working on titles such as
A.T.O.M.
, Cartoon Network,
Doctor Who Adventures, 2000 AD, Gogos Mega Metropolis and Spider-Man Tower of Power
. He also works as a freelance toy designer.

Jack lives in Maidstone in Kent with his partner and two cats.

…there is a deafening rumble from beneath the earth, and the ground shakes. The wrestlers look at each other with puzzled expressions. You are immediately on your guard – even two sumo giants can’t be heavy enough to cause an earthquake, you think. For a moment there is silence. Then, over the hill behind the stadium, dark clouds gather. Strange lights flash among the seething vapours, and ear-splitting, unearthly cries fill the air.

You look up towards the gathering clouds and realise that something very bad is happening…

            
  
Turn over to the next page.

Suddenly two new wrestlers appear from the hill. They are gigantic: their bodies are bright red, and they have savage expressions with staring eyes, bulbous noses and wide mouths filled with gnashing teeth. One has arms so long that it has to carry them high above its head to avoid tripping over them. The other has tiny arms, but incredibly long legs.

You know that these are not human wrestlers: they are demons. The earthquake that shook the ground must have opened a portal to the underworld, allowing them to escape.

There is complete panic in the stadium as the demon wrestlers leap into the ring. Long-arms hurls the terrified sumo competitors high into the air, and Long-legs stamps around the ring, taunting and jeering at the fleeing audience.

You need to act quickly and decisively, but you have left your weapons in the helicopter. What should you do?

            
  
To head up the hill to get some weapons from the helicopter, go to 64.

            
  
To use your martial arts skills to attack the demons, go to 30.