Star League 2 (4 page)

Abigail and Daniel stare at each other in terror, then run off into the forest. ‘Josh! Henry!' There's no reply. The two werewolves are frantic with worry as they run back and forth looking for their children.

‘Wait!' I say, pricking up my ears. ‘What was that?'

Everyone freezes. It's so quiet you could hear a mouse sneeze. I'm almost starting to think I imagined it when …

‘Yip yip!' The sound of a frantic little werewolf cub gets closer and closer until Josh comes tumbling through the trees. His parents rush to meet him.

‘Thank goodness you're safe!' says Daniel with relief.

‘Don't wander too far away like that again!' scolds Abigail. ‘You scared us to death. Where's your little brother?'

Josh's eyes are wide with fear and a bad feeling rises in my stomach.

‘H-he … he took Henry!' says the little brown cub.

‘What do you mean?' asks Daniel sharply. ‘What happened?'

‘Henry and I were playing hide and seek when a man with a bushy red beard appeared out of nowhere. Before we could do anything he put Henry in a big sack,' whimpers Josh. ‘I'm sorry. I tried to fight him but he kicked me away. It's all my fault!'

‘Oh, my poor baby!' whispers Abigail. ‘You haven't done anything wrong, that awful man is the one to blame!'

‘Did you notice anything strange about the man's scent?' I ask.

‘Yeah,' says the little cub, scrunching up his face. ‘It burned my nose, like chemicals.'

That chemical scent again. I rack my brains trying to figure out why a man would smell like chemicals.

‘Which way did he go, Josh?' asks Abigail.

‘Wait, you aren't thinking of following him, are you?' asks Jay.

Daniel snorts. ‘He kidnapped our son! Of course we are.'

‘That seems logistically unwise,' says Sam. ‘Given the data we have received, our suspect seems to be targeting werewolves. Therefore you would be at a greater risk.'

‘Well, who else is going to do it?' asks Abigail with a snarl.

I step forward. ‘Us. We'll get your son back.'

‘You? You're just a pup yourself! What can a bunch of kids do to get our son back?'

‘We're not just any kids, we're the Star League,'
I say. Abigail still doesn't look too convinced.

‘Please,' says Jay, his voice calm and even. ‘For all we know this could be a trap, and if you follow this guy you could get seriously hurt. Then what would Josh do?' He motions to the shivering cub.

I see Abigail and Daniel glance at each other and I know what Jay said has got through to them. The rest of us might have abilities close to super powers, but Jay's way with words is amazing.

Finally Daniel nods. ‘A werewolf has to trust his instincts, and mine are telling me you can help us.'

I turn to the Star League. ‘Come on, guys, let's go find ourselves a kidnapper!'

We follow Henry's scent mixed with the chemical smell through the trees, which leads us out of the forest and down towards a clearing. After ten minutes of following the trail, the chemical smell starts to grow stronger until it's burning my nose.

Up ahead I spot a building that looks like an abandoned factory, except the smell coming out of it tells me that it's far from abandoned. Soon it's so strong I can't smell anything else.

As we get closer my fur prickles – usually a sign that something's not right. But my sense of smell is blocked because of the strong chemical stench, and it's making me really uneasy.

I glance to my left and right, but I can't see anything.

‘I'm not sure,' I start to say, ‘but I think this might be a tra–'

Before I can finish speaking, something flies out of the darkness and knocks me to the ground. out of the darkness and knocks me to the ground.

Some kind of half-human, half-tiger creature is crouched on my chest, crushing the air out of me. It snarls and I see sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight.

My instincts take over. I throw the tiger-human off me and swipe at it. It ducks and backs up, eyeing me off.

I glance around and see that two other half-human, half-animal creatures have bailed up the rest of the Star League. One looks half-gorilla and the other looks half-crocodile. These aren't like any werecreatures I've ever seen before.

Jay, Sam and Asuka are fighting the werecrocodile. They circle around it, trying to confuse it so it doesn't know which way to turn.
It lashes out at them with crocodile claws at the end of human arms.

Jay and Asuka are too quick for it, though, and they dart in and flip it over onto its back. It snarls at them, snapping its rows of jagged teeth, but they manage to stay clear of its deadly jaws.

As they hold it there, Sam pulls a length of wire from the end of one of his fingertips and winds it around the arms and legs of the werecrocodile. It thrashes wildly but can't get free.

The weretiger aims another blow at my head, but I duck it easily and spin around to see the fight between the weregorilla and Leigh and Roger. At first, Leigh seems to be trying to control it with her psychic animal powers, but it's not working, probably because this thing isn't all animal.

Chu jumps down from her shoulder and for a second I think he's going to try to fight the weregorilla. He'll get pulverised! Then I see Roger rummaging around in his pouch of potions.
He pulls out a dark purple one and gives it to Chu, who drinks it down. The tiny monkey starts to grow until he's about twenty times his normal size and the same height as the weregorilla.

They wrestle and try to bite each other. The weregorilla stomps on Chu's tail. Chu screeches in pain, but all it does is make him madder. Chu glares at the weregorilla and grabs him around the waist, tackling him to the ground.

The weregorilla tries to hit Chu, but Chu bites it on the finger – hard! The weregorilla roars in pain, then runs off into the night.

I'm so relieved that I almost forget about the weretiger trying to tear me to shreds. I feel a set of razor-sharp claws come whistling past my cheek and I just manage to avoid them slicing me open. I turn and knock the tiger flying. It lands on its back but wriggles onto its feet just as quickly. I run towards it and it crouches. We pounce at each other at the same time and it's like hitting a brick
wall. My head spins for a moment, but I shake it off. I can't lose focus now.

I grab the weretiger's arms, trying to overpower it, and it does the same to me. We're pretty evenly matched and for a few seconds I think that maybe the tiger is stronger, but then I feel it start to weaken. I lower my head and then slam its arms up into its chin. It yowls in pain and slumps to the ground. I've knocked it out cold!

I turn to the others. ‘Weird werecreatures guarding an old factory that smells worse than a pair of month-old socks? I think we've found the right place!'

I'm about to go racing off into the factory when Jay stops me.

‘Wait, Connor, do you really think this is such a good idea?'

‘Huh? What do you mean?'

‘Well, I mean if this guy is kidnapping werewolves, maybe you should sit this one out?'

What Jay is saying is so ridiculous I want to laugh. ‘Sit this one out? What, and let you guys have all the fun?'

‘You know, Jay has a point,' says Asuka. ‘It seems like he's using werewolves for experiments and the last thing we want is for him to kidnap you too.'

I scowl at her. ‘Aren't you forgetting he's already
got a werewolf to experiment on? Poor Henry must be scared stiff in there! And every minute we spend out here talking is another minute wasted.'

‘But you agreed that it was too dangerous for Abigail and Daniel,' says Leigh. ‘If he's targeting werewolves, you're at greater risk than the rest of us.'

‘Yeah, and we don't want you drawing attention to us and getting the rest of us kidnapped!' points out Roger.

‘Put a sock in it, Dead-boy,' I growl at him. ‘I can't believe you guys are seriously suggesting that I stay behind!'

‘Your temper is quite, well, tempestuous,' says Sam. ‘And if you can't keep a level head in there, you become a liability to us.'

‘You're worried my temper might put you all in danger? In case you haven't noticed, my anger makes me strong,' I say with a growl. ‘Stronger than any of you! Maybe you're the ones who should sit
this one out!' My breathing comes in ragged gasps as I start to get really angry. I can't believe they're all turning on me like this!

‘Connor, maybe you should …' Jay starts to say, but I interrupt him.

‘No! I'm sick of listening to all of you when you never listen to me. None of you believed me when I said this guy we're after wasn't a real werewolf. I bet you don't even care that Henry is all by himself in there. I don't need any of you. I can deal with this wolf-napping creep by myself!'

Before any of them can stop me, I turn and race towards the factory. I don't look back to see if they're following, but I can't hear any footsteps behind me. Good, I think to myself, I'm far better off without them.

As I get up close to the factory I spot a broken window at ground level. I take a running jump and leap through it, landing with a thud on the dusty floor inside. My sense of smell is still out of whack
because of the chemicals, so I can't tell if there are any other henchmen around. I just have to hope that the were-creeps outside were the only guards.

It's dark inside but I can just make out a light at the far end of the building. As I get closer I can see that it's coming from the top of a rickety staircase. I'm willing to bet that Henry's up there somewhere. I wonder if the rest of the Star League has followed me in here or if they've given up and gone home. I growl to myself as I start to climb. Never trust a non-werewolf.

As I get to the top of the stairs I slow down, careful not to make a sound. Suddenly I hear a yelp and I freeze. I know that voice! I peek up over the last step and there, tied up and helpless, is Henry.