Rise of the Heroes (16 page)

“Fort Knox?” Lorna read out loud.

“Yeah,” said Emily. “It holds gold for the government—and it's in Kentucky!”

“Not Alabama?” asked Toby.

“No, but look!” Emily pulled up a map of the storm and pointed. They all saw it immediately. “The storm's heading in a straight line—right for Kentucky and Fort Knox!”

“He's going to pull off the biggest theft
ever
!” said Toby.

“And we're going to stop him,” declared Emily. She stood and patted Pete on the shoulder. “Pete, it's your turn. Get us to Hero.com.”

Pleased to be doing something again, Pete sat down and called up the mysterious Web site. They were greeted by a flashing message:

“MISSION IN PROGRESS: YOU HAVE FAILED TASK ONE.”

Everybody swapped worried glances.

“What does that mean?” asked Pete.

Toby understood. “It means we wasted our free powers on Tempest in the Caribbean. Click on the powers, let's see what happens.”

Pete selected the icon to enter the page of downloadable powers. The computer made a warning noise and flashed another message:

“YOU HAVE NO HEROIC POINTS. DO YOU WISH TO PURCHASE POWERS? YES/NO.”

“How are we going to pay for that?” wailed Lorna. “We don't have any money!”

Pete looked at his friends, every one of them wearing a look of panic.

“Chameleon mentioned an instruction page,” Emily reminded them.

“We don't have time for that now,” Toby snapped. “They want money!”

“Come on, there's got to be a way out of this,” said Pete.

“Like what?” Emily asked. She pulled a handful of coins from her pocket. There was just enough to buy a magazine maybe, but certainly not superpowers. “We can't do it! Doc Tempest is going to steal billions of dollars in gold—and we can't
afford
to stop him! That's ironic.”

Pete snorted. This was just typical of his luck. “So we just give up? Em, can't you just ask your parents for money? They're loaded, aren't they?”

“Of course not!”

Lorna kicked at the floor in anger. “What else can we do?”

“Guys,” said Toby. A thought had just occurred to him. “We're richer than you think.”

“What do you mean?” Lorna asked suspiciously. “Pete, we need to take the laptop outside. I know somebody who can help us!”

The newsstand never seemed to close. It was open when Toby and Lorna started their paper round even on a lazy weekend morning, and lights burned from inside whenever they passed it at night. Today was no exception. Mr. Patel turned to greet his new customers with a polite “Good afternoon.” But his face split into a grin when he recognized Toby and Lorna.

“Ah, my friends, what brings you here today?” He pursed his lips when he glanced at his watch. “And shouldn't you be at school?” He looked curiously at Pete, who was surreptitiously resting his heavy laptop on the ground with a tired sigh.

“We got time off, Mr. Patel,” said Toby with his most sorrowful expression. “Our house got trashed by a tornado and our mother's … missing.”

Mr. Patel's face softened, and he wrung his hands anxiously. “Of course, I heard about that. I'm so sorry. Please take a chocolate bar or snack as my condolence.” True to form, Mr. Patel began to offer up candy.

“No, thank you,” said Lorna. The others followed her
lead in refusing the offer, except Pete, who snagged a bag of chips. Emily shot him an angry look. Pete shrugged.

“What? I'm hungry.”

Lorna continued. “Actually, we wanted to talk about our pay?”

“Ah,” said Mr. Patel. “Certainly. I think we're a little backed up, are we not?” He headed around to open the cash register. “And it would be bad business to lose my best paper-route team.”

“It's not cash we want,” said Toby, just as the register shot out to a jingle of loose coins.

Mr. Patel brightened. “Oh? Not candy and not cash. This is a happy day. Then what?”

“Actually we wanted you to buy something for us from the Internet.”

Mr. Patel's eyes narrowed in suspicion once more. “The Internet?”

Toby nodded. Lorna lightly tapped the laptop with her toe.

“And you have to promise to keep it a secret,” she added.

“Hero.com?” said Mr. Patel staring at the screen. “Is this some kind of game? Or a comic perhaps?”

“Well, it's a lot of fun,” said Pete. He looked at Toby and faltered. “Well, it can be.”

They all looked expectantly at the Web site. Toby and Lorna exchanged nervous glances; they had planned to keep the Web site a secret, but it was unavoidable for them to show it to Mr. Patel. They just hoped he wouldn't ask too many questions so they could keep the superpowers quiet.

But, like most adults, Mr. Patel simply didn't see the “big picture.” He already had his spectacles balanced on the end of his nose, and was staring at his credit card.

“Okay, this is your money,” said Mr. Patel. “You can spend it how you wish, I suppose.” Still, the tone of his voice indicated he disapproved of frivolous wastes such as computer games.

Pete clicked through the screens and got the online donations page up. “There you go. Just type your credit card details in there, and the amount here. Put the whole amount in.”

“Hold on,” said Emily holding her hand to stop Mr. Patel. “Let's just make sure the Web site is secure. Look here, this padlock symbol on the browser means there's a security certificate …” She trailed off at Mr. Patel's confused expression. “Well, it just means it's safe. And up here, instead of the usual ‘http' it says ‘https'; the ‘s' stands for secure, so we're good to go. Let's hope the Web site doesn't just steal the money.”

“Don't be ridiculous,” said Pete. “These are the
good
guys.
Hate to buy anything from the villain site. I bet you'd get ripped off there!”

Mr. Patel began slowly copying his details onto the computer.

“Thanks for doing this,” said Lorna.

The shopkeeper peered over the top of his glasses in a way that reminded Emily of her grandfather. “And you're sure? The whole amount to be transferred?” he asked.

“Yes. Everything.”

Mr. Patel counted off on his fingers, mumbling under his breath. “Two months, eight weekends … that's …” He typed the amount into the computer; looked at Pete and Lorna for confirmation. Then he hit the “Enter” button. The Web site beeped and the page suddenly changed to read: “WELCOME BACK, HEROES.”

Toby gripped Mr. Patel's hand and shook it eagerly. “You don't know how much this means to us! Thank you!” He nudged Pete with his foot. “Hurry up—we've got to get back to your house to … uh … play.”

“Going as fast as I can,” grumbled Pete as he carefully shut down the computer.

Mr. Patel watched the four kids scurry out of the shop as quickly as they could. He shook his head; it was such a shame kids today spent all their time sitting in front of a computer screen and never really getting to see the big wide world outside.

* * *

With their finances secured, the gang browsed through the range of powers on offer as soon as they returned to Pete's.

“Is it me, or are there
more
choices than usual?” Emily had been thinking the same thing. She stopped Pete before he rashly chose something.

“Don't click
anything
,” she warned.

Toby was impatient. Both he and Lorna had been watching the news—and the hurricane was already bearing down on its target. “There's no way we can make it there in time. Even flying!”

“Hold on,” said Emily, still studying the screen. “I just want to see if there's a pattern to all these icons.”

“Em,” said Lorna, “we're running out of time!”

“Well, you won't let me read the instructions and we have to make sure we don't download useless powers. Plus, we're paying for them so we can download
more
than one each!”

“No way!” cried Pete. “How do you know that?”

“Says so right here.” Emily tapped the screen. “If you bothered to read it.”

“Cool!”

Lorna shook her head. “We're going to have to move like lightning to get there.”

Emily nodded. “Then we'll have to teleport.”

* * *

If anybody had been walking casually by, they would have heard a thunderclap immediately followed by four confused-looking children appearing from thin air, one of whom staggered dizzily before falling to his knees and taking off his glasses in case he threw up.

Fortunately there was nobody around to see the heroes' unorthodox arrival. They stood awed by the swirling mass of clouds that congealed into the visible wall of a hurricane in the distance. It was enormous, dwarfing the tornado storm that had ravaged Toby and Lorna's home. The clouds stretched to the ground and swept toward them at an incredible speed, with a constant rumble generated by the high winds. Even from so far away, it pushed at them with such fury that they had to angle their bodies against the wind and shout to be heard.

Toby helped Pete stand. “You okay?”

Pete wiped his mouth with his sleeve. This time he had agreed with Toby and ditched the superhero costume for a sweatshirt and jeans. “I hate the feeling of teleportation!” He had felt giddy, like spinning on the spot for thirty minutes, but all condensed into a second.

Toby glanced at his watch. “Well, it got us here in five seconds!”

“Where's
here
?”

Lorna nudged them both. She was staring behind them. They all turned to see—

“Fort Knox,” said Lorna with relief, remembering it from a picture on the Net. “Right on target!”

Spread around them was a sprawling military base, set on gentle undulating hills. Fort Knox itself was a simple, whitewashed square building made of two levels, very much like a concrete birthday cake. It was unimpressive considering the wealth it held inside.

Twelve olive-green Ml Abrams tanks had circled the compound beyond a chain-link fence that had already been blown flat by the Herculean winds. The tanks' turrets pointed into the maelstrom.

The gale was growing stronger by the second, and almost forced the heroes off their feet. They held their ground and saw movement in the clouds. Dark elongated shapes were just visible—two massive floating structures.

“Here he comes,” yelled Lorna.

“Let's get straight in there and get Tempest,” shouted Toby firmly. “If he doesn't talk about where he's holding Mom, then we'll knock it out of him!”

He leaped forward, and soared into the air. The others followed close behind—the wind almost blew them away like feathers, but they stabilized themselves and pushed into the storm.

They had learned from their past mistakes in fighting Tempest, and this time they were prepared for
anything
.

Or so they hoped.

* * *

Struggling toward the hurricane, they could see beyond the cloud wall a mile-wide tract of land that led into the distance—the path of devastation wrought by Doc Tempest's weather control. It was a massive amount of damage just so he could rob a bank.

In seconds the team had punctured the leading edge of the hurricane. The cyclonic winds threatened to pull them sideways—but they persevered into the calm of the storm's eye and into sudden, perfect weather.

Doc Tempest's army greeted them. Two huge floating barges, approximately the length of battleships, floated on a cushion of air. Their wide, flat decks had obviously been designed to stack enormous quantities of gold bars. But what the heroes hadn't expected were the massive domes—about the size of a house—mounted on the front of the craft. A huge barrel poked from each housing—unmistakably gun turrets, which spun with a whirl of hydraulics to face them.

But that was the least of their problems.

Some forty glider-discs zigzagged through the air like flies. Hulking mercenaries, in their skin-tight uniforms, were riding on each, armed with resin-rifles. They instantly detected the new arrivals and bore down on the four kids like a swarm of killer bees.

Doc Tempest was on his own skiff, circling above the
flying armada. His voice boomed from speakers mounted on every craft.

“You again? Don't you get the message? If you fools think you can challenge me, then listen closely—for bothering me once too often, I will execute my hostage! Do I make myself clear? Though I just remembered …” Tempest slapped his enormous forehead with the palm of his hand. “That won't matter because you'll be
dead
!”

Lorna hovered. The others hung around her, bobbing like hummingbirds as Tempest's forces closed in on them.

“He's going to kill Mom if we do anything!” she cried.

Toby grabbed his sister's arm. “He could do that
anytime
. And it's good news he hasn't already. It must mean he thinks we're a real threat! We have to stop him!”