Rise of the Heroes (22 page)

“So many doors,” Toby said, looking around. “Which one is the right one?”

“We need some kind of map,” said Pete. “Maybe
they have the ones on the wall with a dot saying, ‘You Are Here'?”

“Somehow, I doubt it. And if we get lost, we'll never find my mom!”

“I don't think that's going to be too much of a problem,” Pete said in a strange tone.

Toby shook his head. Sometimes Pete was just too optimistic. He turned to his friend.

“That
is
your mom, right?” Pete said, pointing.

Toby's head snapped around. His mother had appeared from a passageway at the back of the hangar. She looked weak and disheveled and was clutching a rifle. She was clearly in need of her medication.

“Wow, she's got a gun!” Pete said, stating the obvious. “I didn't know your mom was so adventurous!”

Neither did Toby. His hand fell onto the diabetes kit stashed in his pocket. He was about to comment, relief coursing through him, when movement across the mezzanine level caught his attention: Lorna and Emily ran from an opposite corridor and paused to take in the hangar. Once more his heart leaped, and he heard Pete gasp as he spotted them too.

“Lorna! She's alive!”

Tears of joy welled in Pete's eyes and he almost fell down in relief. Nobody had seen the boys hovering in the shadows of the hangar corner, but Lorna and Emily had spotted Sarah. With complete disregard for
their own safety, and apparent disregard for what Sarah would think, they jumped from the mezzanine and glided down in front of Sarah, who yelped loudly in surprise.

Even from this distance, Toby could see the astonishment and joy etched on his mother's face as she hugged Lorna tightly. Toby felt an unexpected surge of jealousy. His mom would never hug him like that.

But that feeling vaporized when he noticed a group of guards advancing toward his mother's hiding place. They must have heard her loud cry of surprise.

Worse still, Sarah, Emily, and Lorna hadn't seen them approaching.

Once Sarah had crushed the breath from Lorna in a mighty hug, she held her daughter at arm's length and studied her up and down.

“What are you doing here? Did that nut kidnap you too?” Then she noticed Emily was with her. “Emily? What—?”

“There's no time to explain, Mom. We're here to rescue you!”

Sarah was flabbergasted. This was too much to take in. She adopted her stern parental tone. “I may be feeling awful but there's always time to explain, young lady!”

“Yeah, please explain,” said a deep male voice. They all turned to see ten armed soldiers surrounding them. “Because I think this is the end of your little superrescue attempt.”

Lorna noticed something behind Tempest's soldiers. She replied with a smile: “No. This is only the beginning.”

The lead guard was puzzled for a second, a witty reply formulating in his mind. But before he could
utter it a series of fireballs exploded into the barrels around them. The men scattered as the fuel drums exploded vertically into the air like rockets.

Lorna and Emily pulled Sarah back from the conflagration just as a pair of laser beams raked across the floor, severing three of the thugs' weapons. Everybody craned around to see—

“Toby!” exclaimed Sarah in surprise. “What are you doing … flying?” she finished weakly.

The boys dropped down and Toby handed his mother the insulin.

“Quick, Mom, take it.”

Relief flooded across Lorna's face when she saw the insulin. Then, she was surprised when Pete hugged her slightly.

“Thank God you're okay! I thought I'd killed you!”

Toby looked surprised, but Lorna succeeded in pushing him away with a grin. “You're not that good of a shot!” She winked at her brother. “Good to see you again! I knew you wouldn't leave us.”

“You too … I thought …” He hesitated; talking about his feelings was something that didn't come easily. “Never mind,” he finished lamely.

Even with trembling fingers it had taken Sarah only moments to inject the insulin into her system. It was not a miracle cure, but already she was feeling the benefits.

Pete smiled at Emily. “Glad you're all right. Feeling okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” grinned Emily.

Together the four heroes stood in front of Sarah, poised for action. It only took a few seconds for the remaining armed men to rally, and the explosion had already caught the attention of a dozen more who were running their way.

“Get 'em!” yelled Toby.

Several things happened in the next ten seconds. All four heroes took to the air. Emily rippled as the chrome-skin enveloped her body.

Lorna became invisible and in the next instant the two closest guards fell; one smashed across the jaw, the other clutching his crotch in agony as the invisible assailant whirled between them.

Pete, his glasses perched on his forehead, swooped low, twin lasers burning from his pupils, striking several troopers down. He was being careful to attack at close range, which enabled him to positively identify which blur was the enemy.

Toby rocketed straight up, feeling the burning power in his hands swell with a ferocity he hadn't experienced before. Once he reached the ceiling he pointed downward, unleashing countless fireballs from his crackling fingertips. They smashed into the ground, scattering men and exploding equipment.

Sarah watched in total disbelief. A hand on her shoulder brought her crashing back to reality. She cocked her head to see a serious-looking mercenary behind her. Even in her weakened condition she rifle-butted him firmly in his face. He fell to the floor, visor cracked, blood running from his nose, and spitting teeth.

Lorna hurtled through a dozen soldiers, all of whom ricocheted from her solid mass like pins struck with a bowling ball. She gained some height in time to see several more troopers advancing on Sarah; but they fell from invisible blows.

The air was suddenly filled with glue-bullets, randomly fired across the hangar. Some caught other troopers, pinning them to the walls and floor. Emily zipped aside as a hail of bullets slammed into the ceiling.

One struck Pete on the side of his leg. Momentum forced the resin-bullet onward and it ripped a swatch off his cheap jeans and hit the wall. But the impact was enough to spin him around. He had been busy blasting a group of guards running to the gold carrier, presumably to use the craft's gun on them—his laser strayed across the floor, ripping through the hose that was refueling the Hercules. Liquid gas spurted across the floor in every direction.

Pete slid his glasses back onto his nose and looked at the devastation he'd caused. “Oh no!”

Toby circled again, performing lazy barrel rolls like
the fighter aircraft he'd piloted on his computer. The glue-bullets pinged all around him. He saw a handful of guards run toward the rack of glider-discs.

“Oh no you don't!” he roared, and a monstrous fireball shot out across the cavern and hit the glider rack. The effect was devastating: the remaining glider-discs were blown to smithereens, the whole rack toppling down on the men who were running toward it. Flames swelled as the structure crashed against the deck, the fire spreading to a number of wooden crates stacked against the wall. Toby cheered triumphantly, then noticed the fuel hose pouring gasoline across the floor. Already some soldiers were running away, slipping in the slick avgas that pooled under the Hercules and trickled toward the blazing glider rack.

“Watch out!” bellowed Toby.

But a deafening siren drowned out his warning. The alarm had finally been raised.

Doc Tempest stood in front of a set of eight giant plasma screens. Each showed the close-up of a world leader, all members of the world's powerful G8, and all of whom regarded Tempest with steely defiance. Currently the president of the United States was speaking.

“We know you're bluffin', bucket-head. So we say no to your demands, and if you don't return our
gold reserves then you'll have one big war headin' your way!”

Doc Tempest was apoplectic. He yelled at the screens, spittle flying from his mouth. But his words were lost as a siren filled the command room. He furiously waved at a technician, shouting at her to stop the alarm, but he couldn't be heard. Exasperated, Tempest wheeled around and fired an electrical bolt from his fingers, blasting the alarm-speaker on the ceiling and plunging the command center into silence. Tempest stabbed a finger at the screens.

“You'll pay for your insolence, Mister President! Say good-bye to Washington DC!”

Tempest stabbed a button on his wristband to cut the video transmission. He turned on the cowering technicians.

“What the—” He stopped, suddenly aware the eight world leaders were still staring at him. Tempest stabbed the button again, several times. This time the screens went blank. He turned again to the technician.

“What is happening?”

“Er … we have intruders in the hangar. And your prisoners have … um … escaped,” squeaked the young technician. He called up a video feed from the security cameras. Doc Tempest gazed venomously at the screen: Toby, Pete, and Emily could be seen darting around the hangar, which was already up in flames.

“I'll deal with them! The rest of you, activate the Storm Engine, make the skies boil with fire! Annihilate Washington DC!”

With a flourish of his cape, Doc Tempest strode from the room, though the effect was spoiled when the piercing intruder alarm filled the command center as the doors slid open.

“And turn that alarm off!”

In the space of a few seconds the airplane fuel had already covered half the distance to the blazing fire. Toby swooped down toward Pete, who had discovered that he could fire smaller laser blasts by blinking quickly, but that made him dizzy. Pete dropped onto the mezzanine level, gripping the rail for support. Toby landed next to him.

“Pete! We have to stop the flames or the aircraft will explode! That's our ticket out with Mom!”

“No problem!” Pete said cockily … then he hesitated. “How?”

“What's your other power? We've got four, remember? Forget teleporting and flying, I have fireballs and can grow larger. What can you do?”

Pete set his jaw firmly. It was up to him to save the day. “You're right! Let's see!”

He slid his glasses back on and extended his hands toward the fuel. The superpower welled up—

And a stream of bubbles issued from his fingers, floating daintily in the air, caught in the thermal upward current of the raging fires below. Toby's mouth opened in shock.

“Bubbles? What kind of stupid superpower is that? Bubbles?”

“Well, I didn't know!” protested Pete. He thought back to what Chameleon had said about there being no useless powers, and wondered what possible help bubbles could provide. Below them, Lorna suddenly became visible again, her hands glowing.

“Will you two stop messing around?” She didn't notice a mercenary was almost upon her, wielding a heavy wrench.

BLAM!
The mercenary was suddenly struck sideways and to the floor as a glue-bullet hit him squarely on the side of the head. Lorna looked around to see her mother, wielding the rifle.

“I felt like I wasn't helping out enough,” Sarah said apologetically.

A set of doors at ground level opened and Doc Tempest strode into the hangar. Lightning bolts surged from his fingers in the vain hope he'd catch one of the young heroes. Instead he did little more than electrocute two of his own men.

“It ends here, kiddies!” bellowed Doc Tempest.

“Watch out!” screamed Toby. He wasn't looking at
Tempest but the fuel, which had now reached the burning crates and glider rack. Blue flames rapidly fanned across the floor in two directions, one toward the split fuel hose that was still attached to the large fuel dump against the wall, and the other toward the Hercules.

The flames reached them both at the same time.

Doc Tempest had barely taken a step before the fuel tank erupted in an orange mushroom cloud that consumed the entire back wall. The blast threw Tempest across the hangar, where a wall of ice collapsed around him.

Emily had been watching everything, and had noticed Lorna and Sarah were too close to the fuel tank. She bolted forward, coming to an abrupt halt in front of them—using her metal body to protect them from the blast. Their world turned into a torrent of fire, as flames roared all around, but Emily shielded them from getting burned.

Nobody could stay on their feet as the hangar shook as if an earthquake had struck. Massive chunks of ice broke from the ceiling, slamming to the ground. Other ice started melting, sending a light rain across the hangar.

Toby and Pete held on tight as the steel platform shuddered from the blast. They watched as the Hercules blew apart. A flaming section of wing spun
toward them, forcing them both to duck and run as it embedded into the wall just above their heads.