The New Heroes
Sakkara
Michael Carroll

Copyright

HarperCollins Children’s Books

A division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2006

Text Copyright © Michael Carroll 2006

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content or written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780007210930

Ebook Edition © SEPTEMBER 2016 ISBN: 9780007369928

Version: 2016-09-08

For Bliz & Murt

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

TEN YEARS EARLIER…

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

THREE MONTHS LATER…

Keep Reading

About the Author

About the Publisher

TEN YEARS EARLIER…

THE LARGE-CALIBRE bullets slammed into Paragon’s armoured chest and knocked him to the ground. He scrambled forward, took hold of Quantum’s arm and dragged him back to the shelter of the fallen tree.

“You hit?” Paragon asked.

No answer. Quantum was barely conscious, his eyes rolling, but otherwise appeared uninjured.

Paragon checked his friend’s pulse. It was strong but erratic. “Come on, man! You’ve got to stay awake!”

A voice came over his communicator. It was Josh Dalton, a member of The High Command. “We’ve got Dioxin,” Josh said. “Energy was right – the girl was able to stop him. We’ve handed him over to the marines.”

Titan’s voice said, “Are you nuts? What could the marines do to stop Dioxin? The man’s a walking acid factory!”

“True, but he’s not bullet-proof. They could shoot him in the head.”

“Enough chatter!” Paragon said. “Josh, get back here ASAP. We need to take out that tank!”

Titan yelled, “We can’t make a dent in it, Paragon! You’re the mechanical genius; any ideas on how we can stop it?”

“Find a weak spot,” Paragon replied.

“We’ve tried. Can’t find one.”

“Then we’re going to have to make a weak spot! Someone cover me – I’m going in!” Paragon activated his jetpack and soared towards Ragnarök’s battle-tank, zooming low over the ground.

Ahead, close to the hundred-metre-long machine, Paragon could see the arcs of lightning issuing from Energy’s floating body. The gun turrets on the battle-tank were firing at her, but somehow Energy remained unharmed.

Then Paragon noticed a pale blue blur zipping through the air around Energy: before the bullets could reach her, Titan was stopping them. Possibly even catching them.

Another volley of gunfire from the tank ripped into Paragon’s chest plate, knocking him off balance. He zoomed up, out of the line of fire, and activated his communicator. “All right, people…This is what we’re going to do. We need to tear a hole in that tank’s armour and get Titan inside. Energy? I’m going to take out its main cannon – you just keep me covered and Titan will cover you!”

Paragon zoomed towards the battle-tank, its heavy gun turrets swinging in his direction. Missiles and plasma bolts streaked towards him, vaporised by Energy’s powerful bolts of lightning.

He dodged left, then right, as the tank’s twin flamethrowers scorched the air around him, then tucked his feet up just as he crested the rear of the tank’s hull, the toes of his boots brushing the roof of a small jet-like pod.

There! That’s the one! Fires in twenty-second bursts, then a gap of eight seconds before firing again. He pulled his last grenade from his belt and set down on the roof of the tank next to the powerful turret. This close, few of the tank’s weapons could target him without hitting each other.

The cannon let loose with another deafening volley and Paragon counted down: Three. Two. One. The firing stopped. He rushed around the cannon towards the barrel, its heat blistering his skin even through his armour. He activated the grenade, dropped it down the barrel, then hit his jetpack’s afterburners, pulling himself from the tank as fast as possible.

Energy allowed herself a quick glance at the battle-tank as its cannon exploded, then refocussed her concentration.

All around her, she could feel the energy from the tank’s plasma bolts, the heat radiating from its engines, the light from the midday sun, even the kinetic energy from the tank’s weapons. She concentrated, channelling that energy into herself, converting it, letting it stream back out of her in the form of lightning, aimed at the ragged tear in the hull where the cannon had been.

“Come on!” she muttered through clenched teeth. “Burn!”

She sensed a sudden shift in the ambient energy levels around her. “I’m almost through!” she shouted to Titan. “It’s starting to melt!”

Energy allowed herself to float closer to the tank. From here, she could feel the heat radiating from the white-hot metal – she absorbed that heat and converted it back into lightning.

“You did it!” Titan shouted. “Get to safety! Now!”

“No, you need someone to cover you!”

Then she felt Titan’s strong hands gripping her arms, throwing her straight up into the air.

Still soaring, Energy spun about, watched as Titan rocketed towards the battle-tank and crashed his way through the weakened hull.

Seconds later, everything went cold.

A voice screamed through Paragon’s headset. “Somebody help me! I can’t fly! I’m falling!”

Paragon looked around quickly, then spotted Energy far above, tumbling down through the air.

He angled towards her and surged through the air. “Spread your arms and legs out!” he yelled. “Try to slow your descent!”

Can’t slam right into her! Got to match her speed!

He arched high into the air, above Energy’s position, then flipped over and dived head-first for the ground. He could see the ground rapidly approaching, and put on another burst of speed. I’m not going to make it! No time to be subtle about this! “Grab the line!” he shouted.

Paragon aimed his suit’s grappling gun and fired. Energy spun about and grabbed hold of the thin cable as it shot past her.

Paragon set his jetpack to hover, then reeled in the cable, slowing Energy’s descent. She’s still going to hit the ground, but she’ll live.

Energy landed feet first, tumbled once, then collapsed. Paragon dropped down next to her. “Are you OK?”

“No. I…I don’t know what happened! It was like everything was just turned off! My power…It’s gone!”

“Oh God,” Paragon muttered. He activated his communicator. “Situation report!”

Silence.

“Max? Apex? Titan?”

Energy took hold of Paragon’s arm and pulled herself to her feet. “Titan’s inside the tank. You’ve got to go after him, Paragon!”

Paragon nodded, then pointed towards the west. “I left Quantum over that way. Find him!”

At least the firing has stopped, Paragon thought as he ran towards the battle-tank, ignoring the stream of Ragnarök’s men who were now fleeing from it, some of them carrying or dragging unconscious comrades.

The machine was still lumbering forward, its enormous wheels gouging deep tracks in the dry ground.

When he was twenty metres from the tank, Paragon flew the remaining distance, straight through the ragged hole where the cannon had been.

He landed in a large room, the walls lined with pipes and tubes. In the middle of the room were the remains of a complicated-looking piece of machinery, now mostly in pieces. At its centre was a large metal ball. Never seen anything like that before, Paragon thought. The engineer in him wanted to know what the machine was, but right now he had more important things to worry about.

As he scouted the room he heard a faint buzzing from a computer set into one wall. One glance at the read-out was all he needed. “Aw hell!” He activated his communicator. “Anyone who can hear me! Get out of the area ASAP! In three minutes this thing is going to self-destruct!”

Dioxin felt sick. He swayed, almost fell.

The three US marines guarding him backed away. “Don’t trust him!” one of them shouted. “Down on the ground!” he roared at Dioxin. “Now!”

Dioxin couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt sick. His pock-marked, acid-seeping skin was starting to itch. He looked down at his hands. What’s wrong with me? He dropped to his knees, leaned over, retched. A thick stream of bile spilled from his mouth, the acid instantly scorching the ground. Oh God. It’s my own poison! I’m not immune to my own poison any more!

Then one of the marines shouted, “Sarge! He’s burning!”

Dioxin could feel his skin starting to blister and bubble. The acid…Need to dilute it. Dioxin looked around in panic, then spotted a large ornate fountain in the middle of the small town’s square. He tried to push himself to his feet. The water…

The marine sergeant cocked his gun. “One more move and you’re a dead man!”

If I can’t get the acid off my skin I’m a dead man anyway! “Help me! The acid…It’s killing me!”

The sergeant paused. “Yeah? Now you know what it felt like for all your victims.”

“Paragon!” Titan’s voice shouted as the armoured man entered the dark room.

Paragon could see one of Titan’s legs protruding from beneath a piece of fallen machinery.

“I’m here!” Paragon said. “Where’s Ragnarök?”

“Gone,” Titan said. “I don’t know what happened…It’s like I’ve lost all my powers! I think my leg is broken.”

Paragon looked around, spotted a thick steel beam and grabbed it. “Hold still. I’m going to get you free.” He wedged one end of the beam under the machine. His muscles straining, Paragon pushed up on the beam. The machine raised a centimetre, then another.

Groaning from the pain in his shattered leg, Titan pulled himself free.

Paragon dropped the beam, allowing the heavy machine to crash to the floor. “We’ve got less than a minute. Can you stand?”

“I don’t think so.”

“OK…Nearest exit?”

“The roof…” Titan pointed to a metal ladder leading to an open hatch in the ceiling.

The armoured man reached down and lifted Titan up, threw him over his shoulder. He grunted. “You’re damned heavy for a man who can fly.”

Paragon pulled himself up the ladder and on to the roof. “Hold on to my legs!” he yelled at Titan, then activated his jetpack. They soared away from the battle-tank just as it exploded in a two-hundred-metre-high ball of flame.

Dioxin saw his chance: the marines were staring off into the distance at the fireball. Pain coursing through every inch of his body, he pushed himself to his feet, grabbed hold of the nearest soldier and put his hand on the man’s neck. The soldier dropped to the ground screaming.

Before the others could react, Dioxin was on them, pressing his venomous, acid-dripping hands against their bare skin.

Then he turned towards the fountain and ran, painfully aware that his own skin was now beginning to peel away. He was sure that if he looked behind he’d be able to see his own blood-stained footprints.

Get to the water, wash the acid off! If I’m lucky, I won’t be too badly scarred. Since it happened – whatever it was – there hasn’t been any new acid.

I’m cured.

The fountain – filled with life-giving water – was only a few steps away when something hard and heavy ploughed into Dioxin’s back, knocking him face first to the ground. He screamed and rolled over on to his back.

Paragon stood over him, his armoured fists smouldering from the acid. “Stay down, you goddamned psychopath! You just murdered those men!”

Dioxin tried to crawl backwards away from him. “No! You’ve got to let me…”

Paragon slammed his fist into Dioxin’s face. “Let you what? Let you get away?”

Dioxin kicked out at Paragon’s legs, leaving a smoking, bloodied streak across the armour. “I’m not immune to my own acid any more! It’s killing me!”

Paragon glanced towards the fountain. He wasn’t trying to escape. He was trying to get to the water…For a moment, he considered letting the man burn himself to death.

Then he reached down, grabbed hold of Dioxin’s arms and threw him into the fountain. The water hissed and bubbled as it splashed down over Dioxin’s skin, turned red with blood and gore.

Dioxin collapsed, unconscious.

Paragon waded into the water and propped up Dioxin’s head. Don’t want him to drown before he can go on trial for murder.

As Paragon was stripping off his now-ruined armour, a dark green army truck screeched to a halt a hundred metres away. A thin, grey-haired old man climbed down. He was wearing an immaculately-pressed uniform with four silver stars on the shirt’s lapels.

Paragon took off his helmet and walked over to the truck. “General Piers. What the hell happened here today?”

“I wish I knew. Our people are going over what remains of the tank. We’ve already picked up most of Ragnarök’s men. And we’ve got your friends. They’re all in a bad way. Looks like they’re not superhuman any more. What about you?”

“I never was a superhuman, General.” Paragon looked back towards the fountain. “What about Ragnarök?”

“He’s gone. There was an escape pod on the roof of the tank. Moved too fast for us to track.”

The general patted Paragon on the shoulder. “You did good work here today, son.”

“General, you’ve got to keep all this secret. We can’t let people know that the superhumans have lost their powers. It might only be temporary. But if not…”

“There’d be chaos. I understand. Every crook on the planet would think that all his birthdays had come at once. Max Dalton said the same thing.”

A soldier approached. “Sir? Dioxin…”

“What about him, soldier?”

“He’s…” The man looked sick and pale. “He’s gone, sir. There’s nothing left of him. Dissolved by his own acid.”

“Can’t say I’m sorry to hear that,” the general said. “All right. Get a crew on to it and start mopping up. Treat it as a level-one biohazard situation. I want every remaining particle of that man’s body bagged and labelled.” He turned to Paragon. “So what next?”

“Someone has to follow that tank’s path, find out where it came from. I want to know how something that big could have come this far without anyone noticing it. Then we’ve got to find Ragnarök and finish this once and for all.”

1

COLIN WAGNER RUSHED towards the burning toy store. Even from a hundred metres away he could feel the heat of the fire.

It was late December, a little after five-thirty in the evening, the streets packed with rush-hour traffic, the pavements blocked with shoppers carrying bags.

Colin and Renata had been on the other side of town, just about to start their Christmas shopping, when Colin heard the screams. They’d run to a deserted alley and changed into their costumes; Colin was wearing his father’s old Titan costume, which his mother had repaired and cut down to size. Renata was wearing black jeans, a black long-sleeved T-shirt under a short red leather jacket she’d bought for a fiver in the local charity shop, and a mask.

Now the two teenage superhumans pushed their way through the crowds. From far away, Colin could hear the sirens of half a dozen fire engines, all slowly trying to get through the dense Christmas traffic.

“Excuse me!” Colin said to a large man who – like hundreds of others – had stopped to watch the fire engulf the toy store.

The man glanced at Colin, then did a double-take when he saw his costume and mask. “You’re Kid Titan! I saw you in the paper!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Colin saw that Renata was having better luck: she had leaped over the crowd and was now running across the roofs of the slow-moving cars, straight towards the burning building.

Colin ducked past the man, spotted a gap in the crowd and ran for it. He jumped on to the bonnet of a taxi, then on to the roof of a stalled Toyota. The Toyota driver beeped his horn in anger.

Ahead, Renata had reached the building. A frightened-looking, soot-covered woman in a scorched store uniform was talking to her. As he ran, Colin listened:

“We got everyone out of the ground floor, but there’s still people trapped upstairs. Part of the ceiling collapsed! The stairs are burning and there’s no way for them to get out!”

“OK. Get everyone back as far as possible. See if you can get someone to clear the way for the fire brigade.”

The woman nodded and turned back to the crowd.

Colin reached Renata just as she kicked her way through the remains of the burning wooden doors. “What happened?”

“She didn’t know. Said she was working in the storeroom at the back when the alarm went off. She got everyone out of the ground floor. But there’s—”

“More upstairs. I heard that.” Colin squinted around, trying to peer through the thick black smoke. “Stairs are over that way.”

“That woman said the stairs are burning.”

“We don’t have a choice,” Colin said. “Take a deep breath and run for it, OK? I’ll go first.”

“No, let me. I can always turn myself solid if the heat gets too much.”

They ran through the blackness towards the stairway, tearing their way through the displays of burning teddy bears and melting model kits. Renata took the stairs three at a time, with Colin close behind her.

Ahead of them was a wall of flame; Colin could feel the heat beginning to singe his costume. Without hesitating, Renata plunged into the fire. Colin followed and seconds later he crashed into something cold and hard.

Renata had turned herself solid.

Damn it! Colin thought. The heat was too much for her! They were still in the middle of the flames. Colin grabbed Renata’s solid form around the waist and picked her up. He continued up the stairs, moving a little slower now.

He emerged from the flames at the top of the stairway and took a moment to breathe. Ahead was a locked fire door and he could hear something pounding on the other side of it. Knowing that time was crucial, Colin didn’t waste any looking around for something to smash open the door. He muttered, “Sorry about this!” to Renata, then ran straight for the door, using her solid form as a battering ram.

The door crashed open and Colin saw a scared, red-faced man on the other side, holding on to a baseball bat. His name-badge read, “Hi, I’m Dave!”

Colin let Renata drop to the floor and pushed the door closed. “You can’t go that way! The fire’s too hot!”

“What are we going to do?” the assistant screamed. “The sprinklers didn’t come on! We used the extinguishers but they didn’t make much difference.”

Colin looked around. The room was thick with smoke, the only light coming from the fire at the far end of the room. A small bunch of people were huddled together in the middle of the room, coughing, keeping low to the floor where the air was a little more clear. “How many others up here?”

“Five, including me,” the man said. “I tried to break the windows with this…” He waved the baseball bat. “They’ve got wire mesh in them.”

On the ground beside them, Renata turned back to her human form and got to her feet. Colin could see that her hands and arms were covered in large white blisters. “Sorry,” she said. “I panicked.”

“Punch out the windows,” Colin said. “I’ll try to find something I can use to lower everyone down.” To the assistant, he said, “Dave, round up everyone. Get them over to the windows. Tell them to keep low.”

All right, Colin said to himself as Renata ran towards the windows. What’s on this floor? Dolls, action figures, books, puzzles…Nothing I can use.

There was a crashing sound as Renata punched and tore her way through the wire-mesh glass.

What can I do to get everyone out? Need a rope or something…He yelled out to the assistant, “Dave! Skipping ropes!”

“Downstairs, next to the register!” the man called back. “Actually, there’s a special on this week…Sorry. Force of habit.”

“Great,” Colin muttered. He listened carefully: the fire engines were still a few minutes away. Then, from the floor below, he heard a series of small explosions. The paint for the model kits, he realised. It’s flammable! “We have got to get out of here now!” he yelled to Renata.

“It’s too far for them to jump!” she called back.

With a crack, the roof at the far end of the room collapsed, showering them with white-hot sparks.

“You jump!” Colin said to Renata, running over to her. “I’ll drop everyone down to you!”

Renata nodded, then vaulted out of the window. As Colin lifted up the nearest woman, he caught a glimpse of Renata’s skin and costume glistening as she turned solid. Seconds later, he heard her call, “I’m ready!”

The woman in Colin’s arms began to panic as he lifted her over the window ledge. “No! It’s too far!”

“Just close your eyes,” Colin said.

“Can’t you just fly us down? What the hell kind of superhero are you?”

“The kind who can’t fly,” Colin said, then dropped her. Below, Renata was waiting with her arms outstretched. She caught the woman and lowered her to the ground. The watching crowd clapped and cheered.

“Next!” Colin yelled.

A second section of the roof collapsed, sending the flames surging towards them. Colin turned back to see that Dave was lifting a teenage boy – not much older than Colin – in his arms. Dave dropped the boy down to Renata.

A coughing, wheezing elderly man was next. As carefully as he could – knowing that old people’s bones could be very fragile – Colin lifted the man up. “Hold on to my hands, OK? Can you do that?”

Still coughing, the man nodded.

Colin lifted the old man out and – gripping on to his hands – leaned out of the window and lowered him down as far as he could go.

“Do it!” Renata shouted. “I’m ready!”

Colin let go, but the old man twisted somehow at the last second, swung away. Renata made a grab for him…And missed.

There was a gasp of shock from the crowd when he hit the ground. The man’s left leg was bent at an unnatural angle. Renata crouched beside him, but he waved her away. “No, help the others!”

A young woman was next. Renata caught her easily, helped by the teenage boy.

Colin looked around. “Who’s next?”

“Me,” Dave said. “I’m the last one.” He was already climbing on to the ledge. “Kid Titan, isn’t it?” He smiled. “We’ve been watching you on the news…Just this week we must have had thirty people coming in looking for action figures of you and Diamond!”

Before Colin could respond, there was a loud creak from the roof above them. He lashed out, pushing Dave out of the window just as the rest of the roof collapsed on top of him. At the same time, the floor gave way.

Colin coughed and blinked rapidly. Blacked out for a second. He was flat on the floor, face down, covered in burning toys and ceiling tiles. He could feel a heavy steel girder across the back of his legs.

Then he heard Renata rushing into the store. She pulled the girder off him, threw it to one side, then lifted him to his feet. “You all right?”

Colin groaned. “I’m never shopping here again. How’s Dave?”

“The assistant? He’s OK. I caught him.” Renata suddenly jumped. “Your arm’s on fire!”

Colin slapped the flames out, then looked down at his costume. It was covered in burns and rips, and his cape was in shreds. “My mother’s going to kill me!”

“Come on, let’s get out of here before the rest of the place caves in.”

“Wait! Is my mask on straight?”

“It’s fine.”

They made their way out of the shop and into a sudden flurry of camera flashes. The crowd was cheering wildly, shouting “Kid Titan! Kid Titan!” over and over. A few – mostly teenage boys – were trying to drown the others out by shouting, “Di-a-mond! Di-a-mond!”

“My fan club is here,” Renata said.

“What, both of them?” Colin said, his white grin spreading across his soot-blackened face.

A TV reporter rushed up. Without asking their permission, he pushed his way between them, turned to face the camera and began speaking. “Barney Macintosh here with the new heroes known as Diamond and Kid Titan, at the scene of a daring rescue. Diamond, if I can turn to you first…What were your thoughts as you selflessly entered the burning building?” He pushed his microphone up to her face.

Renata said, “No comment,” then turned and walked away.

“Er…Kid Titan! Do you have anything you’d like to say?”

Colin nodded. “Yeah. My name is Titan, not Kid Titan!” He turned his back on the reporter and followed Renata.

As they were making their way across the rooftops, to the alley where they’d stored their civilian clothes, Renata said, “We did good tonight.”

“We shouldn’t have let that reporter talk to us. The camera was pretty close.”

“Col, you’re wearing a mask and your face is covered in soot. No one would be able to recognise us.” Renata paused. “Sorry about what happened on the stairway. The heat was just too much for me.”

“That’s OK. Sorry about using your head as a battering ram,” Colin said as he used the end of his cape to wipe his face.

She laughed. “Danny’s going to love that one!” They approached the edge of the roof. “Where are we now, exactly?”

“Bishop Street.” It was an easy jump to the building on the other side of the alley, not much more than the length of large car. Colin stepped back, took a short run and cleared the gap.

Renata landed next to him.

“So you think Danny’s ever going to get his powers back?” Colin asked.

“How would I know?”

“Well, you’ve been a superhuman for longer than we have. Besides,” he added cautiously, “you and him have been spending a lot of time together.”

“Yeah, well…He needs us around. It’s not easy for him. I don’t mean about his powers or his arm. All that stuff with his dad.”

“You mean his real dad or Façade?”

“Façade. I don’t think he should have told Danny’s mother the truth.”

“Renata, he wasn’t legally married to her! He pretended to be her husband for years!”

“If he hadn’t told her, she’d never have thrown him out of the flat.”

“Can you blame her? No relationship can survive that sort of lie! What if you were her, and you found out that for eleven years you’d been living with a former supervillain who…” Colin paused, listening.

“What is it?”

“A scream, somewhere behind us. Come on!”

They turned and ran back the way they came, racing across the flat rooftops, jumping across the alleyways and narrow streets.

“There!” Colin said in a loud whisper. He pointed down into a dark alley, six storeys below. “Four men, mugging a young couple. Think you can jump down there?”

Renata didn’t bother to answer: she just threw herself off the edge.

Colin watched as her skin suddenly glistened and turned transparent. There was a crash as she hit the ground. He saw the four large men spin to face her, one of them holding a knife.

Colin stepped back, took a deep breath and ran. He launched himself across the alleyway and landed on the metal fire escape three floors below, then vaulted over the edge and dropped to the ground next to Renata just as the knife-wielding man charged.

Renata lashed out with a side kick, knocking the knife from the man’s hand.

There was a moment’s pause, then Renata yelled at the muggers’ victims: “Get out of here! Phone the police!”

The man grabbed the woman’s arm. “C’mon, Jackie! Let’s go!”

“No, but…”

“Come on!”

The couple rushed past Colin and Renata, and stopped when they reached the street. “Great,” Colin muttered. “They’re hanging around to watch.”

“Forget about them,” Renata said. “Let’s just sort these guys out.”

One of the men – large, muscled, bald – advanced on them. “What’s this? It’s a little late for Halloween, kids. Turn around and go home.”

“No,” Renata said. “We’re taking you in. Citizen’s arrest.”

The men laughed. The one nearest Renata – a short, stocky man in his early twenties – reached out to grab hold of her arm.

Renata spun about, knocking his hand aside.

“Damn, that hurt!”

There was a brief pause, then the stocky man shouted, “Get ’em!”

Something crashed into Colin’s back, almost knocking him off balance. The bearded man had rushed him from behind and locked his arms around his chest. The one with the shaved head swung his fist at Colin’s face. There was a loud crack and the man gasped.

“Oh God! My hand!” He collapsed to his knees.

Colin had felt the force of the punch, but no pain. He grabbed hold of the bearded man’s arms, quickly ducked down and flipped the man over his shoulder, slamming him heavily to the ground.

Colin looked around to see that Renata was holding the fourth man by the throat. On the ground next to her, the stocky man was groaning and clutching his stomach.

“Are you going to play nice?” Renata asked.

“Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do anything you want!”

“Good.” She opened her hand and he dropped to the ground. “Stay put and keep quiet!”

“What exactly are you trying to do?” Colin asked the bearded man, who was now repeatedly punching him in the face. He grabbed hold of the man’s fist and twisted his arm around, forcing him down.

The stocky man suddenly scrambled to his feet and made a run for it. “I’ll get him!” Renata yelled as she chased after him.

Colin let go of the man’s hand and stepped back, pleased with himself. Not a bad night’s work, he said to himself. Now comes the tricky part. He’d have to keep these men here until the police arrived, then get away before they could ask too many questions.

He looked around to see that the young couple were still at the entrance to the alley, peering in. The woman was using her mobile phone. “Yes! Four of them! And these two kids flew down out of the sky and just beat the hell out of them! No, I am not making this up!”

There was a groan from the ground beside Colin. He turned to see the bald mugger slowly getting to his feet.

“Stay down if you know what’s good for you,” Colin said. He put his foot on the man’s neck and applied a little weight.

The man coughed into the dirt. “Who…who are you?”

“Who am I?” Colin replied. He had been waiting for this moment. “I’m the one the bogeyman is afraid of. I’m the new face of justice. I’m your worst nightmare.”

He crouched down, leaning closer to the man. “You’d better warn the rest of your low-life friends that there’s a new hero in town. You and your kind won’t be tolerated any longer.”

Colin stood up and folded his arms. He wished there was a breeze that would make his cape flap about a little. “Who am I? I’m Titan.”

And that was when one of the other muggers hit Colin across the back of his head with a plank of wood.

Colin felt someone slapping his face and he shook himself awake. “What? What happened?”

Renata pulled him up into a sitting position. “Looks like your powers took the wrong moment to desert you. You OK?”

He reached up and gingerly touched the back of his head. “Ow! What hit me?”

“I don’t know. I lost the other guy, and when I got back the rest of them were gone.”

Colin turned towards the entrance to the alley. “What happened to the onlookers?”

“They’re gone, too. Think you can stand?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He jumped to his feet, picked up the plank and crushed it in his hands. “See? Powers back and everything. Now let’s go and hunt those guys down.”

Renata put her hand on his arm. “No. We’re going to call it a night. Get you back home.”

“Why?”

“Check your face.”

He frowned. “I’m not bleeding, am I?”

“Colin…your mask is gone.”

2

“FINALLY! THE LAST ONE!” Danny Cooper took the dripping dinner plate from the washing-up rack and placed it on a tea towel that he’d spread out on the kitchen counter. He used a second tea towel to carefully dry the top of the plate, then put down the tea towel, turned over the plate, picked up the tea towel again and dried the plate’s underside. Then, one by one, he put the small stack of plates into the rack above the sink.

He glanced at the clock. Washing and drying the dishes had taken him forty-three minutes, a new personal record. Before he’d lost his right arm, he could do it in ten minutes.

He sat down at the table and resumed flicking through his magazine, just as his mother pushed open the kitchen door and slammed it behind her. Danny instantly knew what had happened: Niall had blabbed.

He didn’t look up, but he could sense his mother glaring at him.

“I cannot believe,” she began, “that you were planning to deliberately go behind my back and bring your brother to see that man!”

Danny simply said, “I didn’t think you’d find out.”

“That’s the best you can do?”

Danny finally looked up from the magazine. “Sorry.”

“Sorry you were going to do it or sorry I found out?”

“Sorry you found out.” He pushed the magazine aside and stood up. “What did the little squirt say?”

She glared at him, arms folded, a grim look on her face. “He did his best not to tell me. And don’t call him that!”

“Façade is his father,” Danny said. “Despite what he did, he’s still Niall’s father.”

“That man…” Mrs Cooper swallowed. “He…”

“I know. He lied to all of us. But he thought he was doing the right thing.”

“How dare you defend him!”

“I’m not defending him, Mum. I’m as mad at him as you are. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive him. But…” Danny’s shoulders sagged. “If he hadn’t agreed to take my real dad’s place, then Max Dalton would have used what he thought was his only other option.”

Fourteen years ago when Danny was born, his real father – the superhero known as Quantum – had had a vision of the future in which Danny was responsible for a huge, devastating war between the humans and the superhumans. Max Dalton had concluded that the only way to avoid that war was to either kill Danny as a baby or strip all the superhumans of their powers.

Max had persuaded the shape-shifting villain Façade to masquerade as Quantum, while the real Quantum worked with Ragnarök to create the power-stripping machine. The machine had worked: for ten years there had been no superhumans. Then, a couple of months ago, both Danny and his friend Colin Wagner had discovered that they were the offspring of some of the most powerful superhumans of all: Colin’s parents were Titan and Energy.

Mrs Cooper filled the kettle and turned it on. Without looking at Danny, she said, “I don’t want you to see him again.”

“But…”

“No! I mean it, Danny! That man ruined our lives! And you’re grounded for a month.”

Danny muttered, “It’s not like I ever go anywhere anyway.”

“And when I say grounded, that means you can’t have your friends over either. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly,” Danny replied. “But just listen to me for a second, OK?”

“Why? Why should I listen to you when I know you’re only going to lie to me anyway? God knows we’ve had enough lies in this house!” She glared at him again. “All right then. Go ahead. As if there was anything you could say that might make a difference.”

Danny hesitated for a second, then decided to plunge ahead. “He’s in love with you.”

“What?”

“Dad. I mean Façade. He phoned yesterday when you were out. He told me that he loved you from the moment he first met you. That was one of the reasons he agreed to take my real dad’s place. He says that he has always loved you and he always will.”

Mrs Cooper said nothing.

Danny chose his next words carefully. “Did you ever notice anything? Any clue that Façade had taken your husband’s place?”

His mother glanced towards the spot on the wall where, until recently, there had been a family photo. “He…He was always a little unstable. Your real father, I mean. I thought that was because he knew that at any moment he might have to run off and save someone. But after Façade took over, he seemed to have calmed down a lot. Then that thing with Ragnarök happened and for the first time he seemed to be genuinely happy. Sometimes I wish he hadn’t told me.” She gave her son a weak smile. “But if I’m going to wish for things, I should be wishing that you hadn’t lost your arm.”

Danny glanced down at the stump of his right arm. His shirt sleeve was folded over and pinned up.

“You’re going to have to go back to school soon.”

“I know. But there’s only another couple of days before Christmas. I’ll go back with the others in January.”

Mrs Cooper walked over to the table and picked up the magazine Danny had been reading. “You did the Sudoku puzzle.” The little squares had been filled in with Danny’s shaky left-handed writing. “And the crossword.”

Danny flexed his left hand. “It’s still hard to write, but I’m getting better. I keep reaching for the pen with the wrong arm.”

“And you always had such lovely handwriting!” She looked as though she was about to cry.

The kitchen door opened and Niall walked in. “Colin’s on the telly,” he said.

“What? Our Colin?” Danny asked. “Colin Wagner?”

“Yeah. And he’s dressed up as Kid Titan, too.”

Danny and his mother exchanged a glance. “Must be someone else, Niall,” Danny said.

“See for yourself then if you don’t believe me!” Niall said.

They followed Niall back to the sitting-room.

“See?” Niall said, pointing at the screen. Two newsreaders – a man and a woman – sat behind their desk. On the screen behind them was a photo of Diamond and Titan. Niall turned up the volume.

“…when a blaze broke out at the store less than an hour ago,” the man was saying. “Though the cause of the fire itself is still unknown, there are some fears that it might have been started deliberately. But the most remarkable aspect of this story is the rescue of five people – one member of staff and four customers – who had been trapped on the upper floor.” The screen cut to a shaky, grainy image of Renata and Colin running into the building. The words ‘Amateur film’ appeared in the corner of the screen. The newsreader continued: “The teenage superhumans known as Kid Titan and Diamond – seen here entering the building – braved the intense heat and managed to get the trapped shoppers to safety by knocking out a window and dropping them…”

Danny pulled the remote control from Niall’s hands and hit the mute button.

“Told you,” Niall said. “That’s Colin.”

“Rubbish!”

“It is!” Niall insisted. “And Diamond must be his girlfriend Renata.”

“Renata is not Colin’s girlfriend!” Danny said.

“Well, she lives in his house and she’s always hanging around with him.”

“Sweetheart, Renata is Colin’s cousin from America,” Mrs Cooper said, lowering herself into her armchair.

Niall gave her a look that made it clear he didn’t believe that. “Even so. That doesn’t mean they’re not Diamond and Kid Titan.”

The screen changed again, this time showing Kid Titan and Diamond leaving the building and being ambushed by the reporter. This film was a lot clearer than the previous one, but luckily the two heroes were both covered in so much soot that it wasn’t any easier to recognise them.

“See?” Danny said. “He’s nothing like Colin!” He waited until Colin and Renata had left, then turned the sound back up.

“So there you have it,” the reporter said, trying to hide his embarrassment. “Two brave young heroes, risking their life to save others. They’re clearly not seeking publicity or fame, but it seems that their selfless actions will bring them fame regardless. This is Barney Macintosh, reporting for Channel 6 News.”

The screen switched to show the newsreaders in the studio. The woman said, “That report from Barney Macintosh. Prior to this evening, only a handful of blurred images of these new heroes had emerged, leaving many people to believe that they were nothing more than a hoax, but as our exclusive footage has just shown, no one can now doubt the existence of Diamond and Kid Titan.”

The male newsreader chuckled. “Don’t you mean Titan, Diana?”

She returned his chuckle. “That’s right. He doesn’t seem to like being called a kid. Well, I think his actions today have proved that though Titan might be young, in some ways he’s very definitely a grown-up!”

Watching this, Danny didn’t know whether to be happy for Colin or jealous. If I hadn’t lost my powers…I could have been there with them. In fact, I would have been so fast that by the time Renata and Colin arrived at the scene I could have rescued everyone and put the fire out all by myself.

He looked again at where his right arm used to be. In the past few days, Danny had taken to wondering whether losing his arm was worse than losing his powers. I was only a superhuman for a couple of days, he thought, and my speed wasn’t even reliable, but…

Then there was the vision. He hadn’t told anyone about it. Not Façade, not Renata, not even Colin.

He had seen a vision of himself – not that much older than he was now – leading an army that could destroy the world. They were running from…someone. The vision had been too vague for him to make out many details. But one thing was certain: in that vision, Danny’s future self had a mechanical right arm.

Danny’s mother said, “Oh, not him again.”

Danny looked back at the television set. On screen, standing at a podium in front of an American flag, was a tall, overweight, bearded man. The caption below the screen read ‘Trutopians’ new leader Reginald Kinsella’.

Kinsella was responding to a question. “No, the Trutopian movement has always been dedicated to the better qualities of humanity and always will be. We have no political agenda. Not in the way that you mean. That is not going to change under my leadership. If you’ve read our press releases you’ll already know this. We accept all races, all creeds. All we ask is that anyone wishing to join our society should be willing to obey our rules. Yes, we do strictly enforce those rules, but there’s nothing outlandish. They are simply a set of codes by which most decent, law-abiding people already live.”

Another man raised his hand. “Mr Kinsella, what about the reports that your followers are—”

Kinsella interrupted him. “My followers? The people who’ve joined our movement are not following me, Mr Lincoln. They’re following the Trutopian principles.” He counted off on his fingers. “One: do no harm. Two: help the less fortunate. Three: pay your taxes and pay your bills. Then you will be taken care of.”

“But what about people who can’t pay their taxes, Mr Kinsella? Suppose someone joins the Trutopians, moves to one of your gated communities and then loses his job? What then?”

“Then we will give that person work until he can find a job that suits him. You know the statistics: over twelve per cent of our people work in security. We have the safest communities in the world. There has yet to be a single crime committed by a member of the Trutopian movement. We have no crime, no poverty, no bigotry.”

Another hand was raised. “So what’s the point of having the largest private police force in the world if you don’t have any crime?”

Kinsella took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly. “We don’t have any crime because we have the largest private police force in the world.”

The same man asked, “So is that why you want to recruit the new heroes? You want them to work for you?”

“I want them to work with us, not for us. That’s the purpose of this session. No one knows how to get in touch with them, so I’m making a public appeal.” Kinsella turned towards the camera. “Diamond, Kid Titan…If you’re watching this, I’m asking you to get in touch with your nearest Trutopian community. Join us and we will provide you with all the assistance you will ever need. We will house your families, provide them with good jobs and unparalleled education. The Trutopian goal is in the name: Truth and Utopia. We are aiming to make this world a better place – for everyone. Join us. Save the world.”

With that, Kinsella stepped back from his podium.

Danny looked at his mother. She was looking back at him. “No way,” Danny said. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“It sounds…”

“It sounds too good to be true. That usually means that it’s not true. Besides…I can’t do anything any more.”

“They might still be interested. It could be worth phoning them. Just to see.”

“What are you talking about?” Niall asked, looking from one to the other.

Before Danny could reply, the television once again cut back to the newsreaders in the studio. “Breaking news just in,” the male newsreader said, clearly excited, “another Channel 6 exclusive! It seems that following this evening’s rescue of five people from a burning toy store, new heroes Diamond and Kid Titan saved a young couple from four men attempting to mug them. Apparently, the heroes managed to scare off the muggers, but not before Kid Titan was knocked unconscious.”

Danny suddenly sat up straight.

The newsreader continued: “One of the muggers’ intended victims – part-time nurse Jacqueline Caldwell – used her mobile phone’s built-in camera to take this photograph of Kid Titan.”

The screen showed a grainy, low-resolution photo of Colin, unconscious and unmasked, lying on the ground.

Niall squealed and was practically jumping up and down with excitement. “I told you Colin was Kid Titan!” he shouted at Danny. “I told you!”

3

ALMOST FIVE THOUSAND miles away, in the Chinese city of Jiamusi, a gunman lay on the balcony of his luxury hotel room, a high-powered rifle in his hands.

The gunman was in his mid-forties, though little about his physical features gave that away. He was completely bald – lacking even eyelashes – and his pallid, mottled skin was a network of thick red and white scars. He was tall, but slightly built, with long wiry arms ending in thin, nailless fingers.

He had not moved from his position since before dawn, staring through the rifle’s telescopic sight, which was fixed on a specific window of the apartment block across the busy street.

Through the sight the gunman could only see a small portion of the room opposite, but he had chosen his location carefully: that portion of the room contained a mirror, and reflected in that mirror he could see part of an occupied bed.

Then the occupant of the bed stirred, reached out to shut off an alarm clock.

Finally, the gunman said to himself. Barely moving, he reached into his shirt pocket and removed a single bullet-shaped pellet. He used his teeth to tear open the pellet’s plastic coating, slipped the pellet into the rifle and waited, finger on the trigger.

Two minutes later, the apartment’s window opened – as he knew it would – and directly in his line of sight was a woman’s bare arm.

He squeezed the trigger. The rifle made a faint phut! sound and the arm was instantly pulled back.

The gunman waited long enough to watch – through the mirror – the woman climb back into bed, yawning.

Now – move! He quickly crawled backwards, into the hotel room, disassembling his rifle as he went.

Getting to his feet, he dropped the rifle’s components into a black canvas bag, slung it over his shoulder, then quickly and quietly darted from the room.

The gunman silently raced along the corridor and dashed quickly past the room occupied by the businessman who – for some unfathomable reason – never fully closed his door.

As he ran, the gunman pulled a forged key-card out of his pocket. The previous day, he had picked the pocket of the guest staying in room 1102, duplicated the card then left the original where it could easily be found in the hotel’s lobby.

Directly ahead was room 1102: the gunman slipped the card into the lock and stepped through.

Inside, a startled man was sitting cross-legged on the bed, eating toast and reading a newspaper. He barely had time to say, “What…?” before the gunman emptied the contents of a small aerosol canister into his face.

The man collapsed backwards, unconscious.

The gunman checked the hotel guest’s pulse. Good. Strong and steady. He’ll sleep for about four hours and won’t remember a thing.

The gunman opened the balcony doors and peered out. His car was parked in the alley below, ten floors down. He pulled a thin rope out of his canvas bag, connected the quick-release hook to the balcony’s railing and vaulted over the edge.

Hand over hand, he quickly rappelled down the rope, dropping the last two metres. A quick, sharp tug on the rope and the hook above automatically disconnected. He caught the hook, then ran for his car, coiling the rope as he went.

He had his car keys in his hand and was reaching for the lock when the car’s windscreen suddenly shattered.

The gunman instantly vaulted over the car, just as a hail of silenced bullets ploughed through the air, barely missing him.

Damn it! I knew they’d try something like this!

Then a voice called out, “Mr Jackson? You would do well to surrender!”

“Perfect,” he muttered to himself. “It’s Junior.”

“We know your methods, Mr Jackson! We know you never carry any lethal weapons on a mission where you’re not expected to kill! We have you outnumbered. There is nothing you can do!”

Right, the gunman thought. You think you know me. You think I’m some honourable assassin who always plays by a set of rules. Well, if you think I didn’t see this coming you’ve just made the biggest mistake of your life.

He reached into the canvas bag and pulled out a Heckler and Koch P7K3 semi-automatic pistol, a small snub-nosed weapon that in the right hands could be deadly accurate.

Lying flat on his back, the gunman crawled halfway under the car and looked out. He could see three pairs of feet. Two of his would-be killers had their feet spread apart: the stance of someone proficient with a powerful hand-gun. Junior’s bodyguards.

He aimed and fired four times in quick succession, hitting the bodyguards’ ankles. The men fell to the ground screaming.

The remaining set of feet shuffled, then turned and ran.

The gunman rolled out from under the car and charged after the young Chinese man.

Junior had almost reached the entrance to the alley when the gunman floored him with a flying kick to the small of his back.

He pulled Junior to his feet, pressing the muzzle of the gun into his neck. “Whose idea was this? Your father’s?”

Junior shook his head. “No!”

The gunman dragged Junior back towards his car and handed him the keys. “Get in.”

Shaking, Junior unlocked the car and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Start it up.”

As the car rumbled to life, Junior asked, “Where are you taking me?”

“Nowhere,” the gunman growled. He reached in, grabbed Junior around the neck and pulled him out of the car. “Just wanted to make sure you didn’t have a bomb wired to the ignition.” He forced the young man to his knees. “You hire me to put your rival out of commission so she’ll miss today’s meeting. You don’t want her dead because that would bring her gang into conflict with yours. That’s good thinking. I applaud that. She misses the meeting and suddenly it looks to everyone that her people don’t care about your precious trade agreements.”

“Mr Jackson, I—”

“Shut up. I’m not finished. So all on your own you decide that instead of paying me my two million dollars, you and your friends will kill me and keep the money for yourself. And Sheng Senior will never find out, right?”

“No, it wasn’t like that!”

“Then what was it like?”

Junior Sheng didn’t have an answer.

“I thought so. Junior, your old man is a fool if he believes that one day you’re going to be able to take over his organisation.” The gunman laughed. “You actually thought you could kill me. You hired me because I’ve got the best reputation in the business. I have never failed to take down a target, but somehow you thought that you and your goons would be able to stop me.”

He stepped back. “Get up. I’m not going to kill you.”

Holding on to the car to steady himself, Junior Sheng got to his feet. “I’m sorry, Mr Jackson!”

The gunman raised his eyes. “You can’t even get my name right!” He shook his head. “You’re in serious trouble, Junior, you know that? Sure, I did the job. Your rival will sleep for about six hours and there is absolutely no evidence of foul play. The knock-out pellet I hit her with will already have dissolved into nothing. But you had to come after me. How’s that going to look? She misses this important meeting and on the same day there’s unexplained gunfire in the alley behind the hotel closest to her apartment.”

The young man swallowed and stared at his feet.

“Listen, Junior, you just tell your father that I’m coming to see him today and that I want him to give me my money in person. Plus a little extra…This is a hired car and I’m damned if I’m going to pay for a new windscreen. If I don’t get my money, I’m going to kill him. If you or any of your organisation tries to pull another stunt like this, I’ll let him live but I’m going to kill you and every other member of your family. Got that?”

Junior nodded vigorously. “I am sorry, Mr Jackson! It won’t happen again! I swear!”

The gunman put his gun away. “Yeah, I’m sure it won’t, Junior. And for the last time, my name is not pronounced Jackson. It’s Dioxin.”

4

WARREN WAGNER ANGRILY stabbed at the buttons on the remote control. “It’s on every channel!”

Sitting on the sofa next to Warren’s armchair, Colin groaned inwardly. This is all my fault! If I hadn’t been showing off, if I’d been paying attention, that guy wouldn’t have knocked me out and none of this would have happened!

Warren flung the remote control on to the coffee table and – without looking at his son – said, “Colin, how many times over the past few weeks have I told you to be careful?”

“I know, Dad! I’m sorry!”

“Sorry isn’t good enough! We have to find a way to fix this…I don’t know, maybe get someone else to wear the Titan costume and arrange it so that the two of you can be seen in the same place at the same time. If Danny Cooper still had his powers…”

“It wouldn’t work, Dad. Danny’s taller than me and his hair’s the wrong colour. Plus, you know. His arm. Anyway, he doesn’t have his powers and there’s no way we can fake them.”

Mrs Wagner and Renata came into the room. “Renata just had an idea,” Caroline said to her husband. “Why don’t we start phoning everyone, saying things like, ‘Did you see how Kid Titan looks just like Colin?’ A preemptive strike. It would be better than people calling us about it.”

“It’s not Kid Titan,” Colin said. “Just Titan.”

“I really don’t think the name is what you should be focussing on right now,” his father said. He turned to Renata. “Let me take a look at your hands.”

She sat down next to him. Warren carefully unwrapped the bandages on her hands and examined the blisters. “You’re healing fast,” he said. “You’ll be OK in a day or so. Any pain?”

“A bit,” Renata said, “But it’s not bad. Look, maybe Titan could make a public announcement, saying that he has the power to change his face, like Façade could, and that it’s just a coincidence that the face he chose looks like Colin.”

Warren shook his head. “And when he’s asked to demonstrate this power, what does he do then?”

The phone rang. Everyone looked at each other.

“That’s the first of them,” Caroline said, biting her lip.

Colin stood up. “I’ll get it. If it is someone asking whether I’m Titan, I’ll just laugh at the idea. Or something.” He went out into the hall and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Col?” It was Brian McDonald; along with Danny, Brian was Colin’s closest friend.

“Hi, Brian…How’s it going? Hey, were you just watching the news?”

“Yeah! That’s why I’m phoning. Kid Titan looks just like you!”

“I know. Now everyone will think I’m a superhero!”

Brian laughed, then said, “You’re not, are you?”

“Oh, I wish!”

“You’re going to have everyone bugging the hell out of you now! Still, maybe some girls will finally notice you!”

“Oh, thanks a bunch.”

“Not that you need to worry on that score,” Brian said after a short pause, “you’ve had a hot babe living in your house for weeks. Pity she’s your cousin.”

“I don’t think of her as a hot babe, though,” Colin said. “Just as someone who eats all the biscuits and forces us to watch girly movies.”

“You know,” Brian said slowly, “she does kind of look like Diamond.”

“Brian, I think I’d know if my own cousin was a superhero!”

“I suppose. Anyway, I’d better go. I just phoned Danny but his mum wouldn’t let me talk to him. He’s been grounded or something. See you tomorrow, right?”

“Sure,” Colin said. “See you.” He hung up. Maybe I should have told him ages ago. He wouldn’t have told anyone else. Probably.

The phone rang again. Colin hesitated for a second, then picked it up. “Hello?”

“Colin? Is that you?” A girl’s voice asked.

“Yeah. Who’s this?”

“It’s me! Judy Morris! Don’t tell me you don’t recognise my voice!”

How could I recognise it? Colin thought. You’ve hardly ever looked at me, let alone talked to me! He could hear whispering and giggling in the background.

“So listen, we were just watching television and guess what we saw?”

“You saw someone who looks like me. Yeah, you’re not the first one to let me know. How did you get my number, anyway?”

“Adam Gilmore told me. So it’s not you, then? Kid Titan, I mean?”

Colin resisted the temptation to say that the name was Titan, not Kid Titan. “What do you think? That I’m secretly a superhero? I wish I was.”

“He does look a lot like you, though. And we were thinking, OK, that he hangs around with that girl superhero Diamond, and she looks kinda like that girl staying with you.”

From the sitting-room, Colin could hear his mother’s mobile phone ringing. “Judy, it’s just a coincidence that Kid Titan looks like me.”

There was a brief pause. “If you really were him, you wouldn’t tell me anyway, would you?”

Damn it! Colin thought. “Probably not. I mean, I barely even know you.”

“Well, that’s because you never talk to anyone. You’re too shy. You know my friend Emma? The short one with red hair? Well she fancies you!”

Another voice squealed, “Don’t tell him that!”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Colin couldn’t help being drawn in. “Really?” He’d seen Emma around and had always thought she was sort of cute.

Behind Judy, Emma was saying, “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

“Yeah,” Judy said. “You could actually try talking to her sometime. Hold on, I’ll put her on.”

Colin began, “No, wait…” but it was too late.

Emma came on. “Erm…Hi, Colin.” She was almost drowned out by a loud burst of giggles.

“Hi,” Colin said, thankful that he was on the phone and she couldn’t see how much he was blushing.

At that moment, the sitting-room door opened and his father stepped out. “Hang up the phone.”

Colin covered the mouthpiece. “In a minute!”

“Now, Colin!”

With his father standing there watching him, Colin said into the phone, “Sorry, Emma, I have to go.”

“Oh. OK then.”

“Bye,” Colin said, then hung up and instantly regretted it. I should have said that I’d see her soon or something like that! Now she’s going to think I don’t like her!

Mr Wagner reached out and unplugged the line from the phone. “We’ve been talking, Colin. We’re all going to have to leave here. It won’t be long before someone figures out that Renata must be Diamond. Then someone will realise that your mother and I used to be Energy and Titan.” He shrugged. “If that happens none of us will be safe.”

“There must be something we can do to sort things out!”

“There’s nothing. There’s no going back. I’m going to phone Joshua Dalton, tell him to arrange transport out of here and somewhere for us to stay. Ever since California, he’s been asking us to go and work for him.”

“What does he do, anyway?”

“I’m actually not sure. Some kind of top-secret work for the US government.”

“So…We’re going back to America?”

Warren nodded, then smiled. “Yeah. But at least this time we’re not being kidnapped.”

After much badgering from Danny, his mother had finally agreed to allow him to take Niall to see Façade. She laid down the rules: “You are not to stay for more than an hour. You are to go straight there and come straight back. Do not invite him for Christmas dinner – I don’t care how lonely he seems! And don’t go telling him that everything will be all right and that I’ll give in eventually!”

Having agreed to all the rules, Danny and Niall pulled on their winter coats and set off for the bus stop.

Danny was thankful that the bus was nearly empty because Niall couldn’t stop talking about his discovery that Colin Wagner and Renata Soliz were superheroes.

By the time they got to the last stop, Danny was just about ready to throttle his little brother.

“Right,” Danny said, taking Niall aside. “There’s lot of people around, so do not talk about Colin or Renata, OK?”

Niall nodded. “OK. But, right, what if…”

Danny raised his eyes. “Niall, just keep quiet, OK? And stick close.”

They made their way through the market square. As Christmas was approaching, most of the shops were still open, and the square was filled with people either laden with packed bags or carrying absolutely nothing and looking like they were on the verge of panic.

Danny shuddered as a freezing wind whipped through the square. He glanced down at the zipper on his coat. Should have worn the other jacket. Buttons are a lot easier to manage with one hand. “Niall? Help me out here, OK?”

As Niall zipped up the coat, Danny tried to ignore the looks of the people passing by. He heard a muttered comment, “That poor boy!”

I didn’t know how lucky I was when I had two arms. I tied my shoelaces every single day and never even thought about it. I could open a bag of crisps without having to use my teeth. Now it’s all I can do to get dressed in the mornings.

Danny’s mother had bought him a new pair of trainers with Velcro straps. That should have made things easier, but it only made him more aware of what he had lost.

As they passed Morton’s Electrical Goods, Niall stopped and stared. The window was packed with dozens of television sets, all showing the same film: Kid Titan and Diamond rescuing the shoppers from the fire.

“Come on,” Danny said. “We don’t have time to hang around.”

They were just about to turn away when the screens changed to show the photo of Kid Titan without his mask. Oh God, Danny thought. It’s not going to be easy for him. But at least the photo’s not great quality, so I suppose things could be worse.

And then a caption appeared below the photo: “Colin Wagner, 13, AKA Kid Titan.”

Danny’s blood froze. “No…” he whispered.

Niall turned to him. “What does AKA mean?”

“What?” Danny asked numbly.

“AKA Kid Titan, it says.”

“It stands for Also Known As.”

Around them, people had stopped. Someone in the crowd said, “Colin Wagner…Doesn’t he go to school with our Philip? His mother’s one of the teachers there, right?”

Danny whispered to Niall, “Let’s just go. Quietly, OK?”

They turned away, stepping carefully through the growing crowd. Niall kept glancing back towards the store.

“Come on!” Danny said. “Niall!”

His brother had stopped walking and was staring openmouthed at the largest wide-screen television.

The screen now showed a decade-old photograph of Titan and Quantum. The caption beneath read, “Titan, AKA Warren Wagner. Quantum, AKA Paul Joseph Cooper.”

For the first time in his life, Danny swore in front of his little brother. He grabbed Niall’s arm and tried to pull him away.

At that moment the screen changed once again, and showed the same captions over much more recent photos of Warren and Façade.

“Danny! Look at that! It’s Dad!”

Danny quickly glanced about: a lot of people had heard Niall and turned in their direction.

Niall kept talking: “It’s Dad and Mr Wagner! Danny, it’s saying that they used to be—”

Pushing Niall ahead of him, Danny said, “Just shut up and run!” How did this happen? How could someone have found out so quickly?

A man stopped to block their path. It was Mr Leopold, who lived in a neighbouring flat. “Danny and Niall! Did you see that? About your dad? It’s not true, is it?”

“No,” Danny said. “Of course not!” He tried to dodge past his neighbour. “We’ve got to go…”

“Is that why your mother threw him out? She found out about his past?”

Danny looked around. More and more people were stopping to stare at them. They knew his father was the manager of the local supermarket, and everyone would have heard about how PJ Cooper’s son had lost his right arm in an accident.

“Your friend Colin,” Mr Leopold was saying, “he’s Kid Titan, so then that cousin of his must be Diamond. What’s her name again?”

Niall stepped closer to Danny as the crowd advanced.

“It’s all just some stupid hoax,” Danny said, thinking quickly. “There’s a guy who works in the TV station who used to go to school with our dad. They’re always playing pranks on each other.”

Someone said, “You expect us to believe that?”

If I had my powers, Danny thought, I’d just pick Niall up and run away from this lot faster than they could see.

A woman Danny didn’t recognise pushed her way through the crowd. “Listen…I’m having some trouble with gangs of kids in the area, always hanging around. Maybe your dad could do something about it?”

“I don’t like this,” Niall said in a low voice. “I want to go home!”

Me too, Danny thought. Aloud, he said, “It’ll be OK, Niall. Just stick close to me.”

Then an elderly man approached. “Quantum saved my life, about fifteen years ago! Pulled me out of the way of a speeding truck. I never got a chance to thank him!” He stretched out his right hand, offering it to Danny to shake, then instantly pulled it back when he saw that Danny didn’t have a right hand of his own. “Oh. Sorry.”

“Please,” Danny said. “Let us go! It’s all a mistake! My father is not Quantum!”

A man asked, “You’re Quantum’s kids? For real?”

“No, we’re not!”

“Ten years since the superheroes all disappeared,” the man said. “Ten years! We all thought they were dead, but now…” The man’s face took on a snarl. “I know PJ Cooper! I used to work for him in the supermarket! Four years back my sister was knocked down by a couple of drugged-up joyriders. She’s going to be in a wheelchair for the rest of her life! If Quantum had been around, he never would have let things get that bad.”

The man next to him yelled, “Where the hell were your dad and his mates when my estate was being terrorised by junkies? Did they just decide that normal people weren’t worth saving any more?”

“Of course not!” Danny said. “I’m telling you, this is all a mistake!”

“That’s what happened, isn’t it?” a young woman asked. “They gave up on us. They think they’re better than we are!”

Mr Leopold said, “All right, everyone just calm down! I’ve known the Coopers for years! They’re good people and taking your anger out on these boys won’t solve anything!”

“Yeah!” someone in the crowd yelled. “Quantum and Titan and the others saved the world dozens of times! They don’t owe us anything! We owe them!”

Danny looked around. He and Niall were completely surrounded. There’s hundreds of them!

Then a large man pushed his way to the front of the crowd, shoving people aside. He stopped in front of Mr Leopold. “Outta my way!”

Mr Leopold swallowed. “What do you want?”

The man pointed at Danny. “His old man owes me. Caught me breaking and entering. I was inside for four and a half years! Do you have any idea what that was like, Cooper?” he roared at Danny. “It was hell! Day after day of eating the same tasteless crap, sleeping in a cramped, rat-infested cell, knowing that at any minute you could be stabbed in the back by some moron who’s got a grudge against you!”

Danny said, “You can’t blame my father for that! If you were stupid enough to break into people’s houses then you deserved to be in prison!”

“So it is true!” The man stepped closer. “Don’t think that just because you’re missing an arm I’m going to go easy on you!”

There was a gasp from the crowd, but the man ignored it.

Oh God, this guy is going to flatten me! The man charged, his powerful fists raised. Danny pushed his brother to one side. Come on, he told himself. Use your super-speed! The power might not be completely gone! He tried to remember what it had felt like to switch into slow-time mode: a prickling sensation at the back of his head, the way everything else seemed to slow down, the way the sounds became quiet and low.

It wasn’t working.

He quickly stepped aside, out of the man’s reach for the moment, and glanced around. There was a ripple of excitement running through the crowd, but the people closest to him didn’t seem inclined to help.

Only one thing for it, he decided. He took a deep breath, squared his shoulders and stared the large man in the eye. “Before you do anything, I have to warn you.”

The man snarled at him. “What are you talkin’ about?”

“Yes, my father was Quantum. He could move faster than anything you can imagine. He was able to move so fast that he could pass through solid objects. And superhuman powers can be inherited. Now, I understand your anger, so I’m willing to let this go. You turn around and walk away right now and we’ll say no more about it. But if you really want to return to prison, then go ahead. Hit me, if you can. If you’re willing to pay the price.”

The man hesitated.

“Or you can do the wise thing, the right thing, and turn away now.” Danny was vaguely aware of a greater commotion in the crowd, but didn’t want to take his eyes off the large man.

The man barked a short, cruel laugh. “You little punk! You almost had me going there for a second! And for that, you’re going to pay!” He lashed out at Danny with his fist.

Danny flinched and closed his eyes, but the fist didn’t connect. Did I do it? Did I just dodge his fist? He opened his eyes to see that the large man was now lying on the ground, face down. Standing over him was a tall, powerful-looking man in steel armour.

The crowd of people had backed away considerably, but now began to surge towards the armoured man.

“Stop right there!” the armoured man’s voice boomed out.

Everyone froze.

“These boys are under my protection! Anyone who wants to hurt them will have to go through me first!” The armoured man turned to Danny. “Mr Cooper? Pick up your brother and hold on to him.”

Danny did so, then the metal-clad man scooped the two of them up in his arms. There was a brief flare from the man’s jetpack and suddenly they were soaring away from the crowds.

The armoured man looked down at Niall’s terrified face. “Hi there. You must be Niall. My name is Solomon Cord. Or, if you like, you can call me Paragon.”

5

“GOD, IT DIDN’T take long for the word to get around,” Renata Soliz said, peering through a gap in the sitting-room curtains.

Outside, the normally quiet street was filled with people: friends, neighbours, reporters and police officers trying to hold everyone back. An enterprising ice cream man had stopped his truck across the road and was doing great business despite the freezing weather.

Mr Wagner had been forced to disconnect the doorbell, but that hadn’t stopped people from banging on the doors and windows. It was only when the local police sergeant had stationed two officers outside the front door and another two in the back garden that the crowd had finally calmed down a little.

Renata turned to Colin. “Bags all packed?”

“Yeah. Everything I could think of. You know what’s going to happen, don’t you? Once we’re gone and the police leave, that lot are going to break in and look for souvenirs. Someone’s going to make a lot of money flogging our stuff on eBay.”

She smiled. “I think we might need a good lawyer.”

“I was thinking that what we need is a good agent.”

Renata collapsed into the armchair and turned on the television set. Almost every channel showed a different view of the Wagners’ house. “Hey! He’s not a reporter! He’s the weather man! They’re all getting in on the action!”

Colin’s mother entered, carrying two small bags. “Is this all you have, Renata?”

“That’s everything, Mrs Wagner. For once I’m glad I don’t have much stuff.”

“How did they find out about you and Dad?” Colin asked his mother.

“I wish I knew.”

“You didn’t wear a mask when you were Energy,” Renata said. “Maybe someone always thought that you looked like her, and when they found out about Colin…” She pointed to the television set. “Col, isn’t that one of your friends from school? He’s giving an interview!”

“Yeah…And look: that kid in the background. That’s little Peter what’s-his-name from down the road. God, I hope they don’t let that slimy little turd on the television!”

Renata turned up the sound. Malcolm O’Neill was talking to the reporter and kept glancing at the camera. “Yeah, I’ve known Colin for years and years. I’m probably his best friend.”

“Some friend!” Colin said. “He nicked half a Mars Bar from me last year!”

“And did you know about his powers?” the reporter asked.

“I always suspected that he was different,” Malcolm said. “Colin can’t kick a football to save his life, you know? I mean, he’s definitely the absolutely worst player in the whole school. Ever. Which is saying something because nearly all of them are crap, except me. So what Colin was probably doing was just pretending to be rubbish so that no one would suspect that he’s a superhuman.”

“That’s not true!” Colin said. “I genuinely am rubbish!” He paused and frowned. “No, that’s not what I meant.”

The reporter asked, “And what can you tell us about Diamond, Kid Titan’s girlfriend?”

Renata and Colin both yelled, “Girlfriend?” at the same time.

“I only met her once,” Malcolm said. “Her name is…uh…Romana, I think. She’s supposed to be Colin’s cousin, but she puts on, like, a really fake American accent. As if anyone would be fooled by that.”

Renata turned off the television set. “Idiot!” she muttered.

“You OK?” Colin asked.

“I will be, once we get to the States. I’ll finally be able to go home.”

Caroline said, “We’ve been over this before, Renata. It’s not going to be that simple. Your parents don’t know that you’re still alive.”

“We have to tell them at some stage!”

“I know, love, but not yet. Maybe when all this calms down.”

“If it ever does calm down,” Colin said.

Mr Sheng’s bodyguards stepped aside as the scarred man strode into the office. They knew he was unarmed; they also knew that being without weapons didn’t make him any less dangerous.

Sitting behind a polished ebony desk on which was nothing but a large flat-screen computer monitor, a keyboard and a mouse, Mr Sheng smiled. He was old and extremely thin, with an abundance of loose, hanging skin around his neck, the sign of someone who had lost a lot of weight much too quickly.

Behind him stood Junior, pale and nervous, unable to look Dioxin in the eye.

“All is well,” Mr Sheng said. “The meeting was abandoned. Our rival failed to appear. This has made her appear uninterested in the agreements. We will capitalise on this, use it to our advantage.”

“Glad to hear it,” Dioxin said, “considering the stupid stunt your son here pulled this morning.”

“He will be punished accordingly.”

“And?” Dioxin asked.

The old man frowned.

“I’m waiting for an apology for his actions.”

“My son has already apologised to you. I do not believe that an apology from myself is necessary.”

“It wouldn’t hurt,” Dioxin said. He leaned forward, spreading his scarred hands on the desk. “Look, Sheng. It’s business. I understand that. But your son not only tried to kill me – which is bad enough – he also insulted my intelligence and my reputation. So…don’t apologise if you don’t want to. I don’t care. But you should at least thank me for allowing him to live.”

“Then you have my thanks, Mr Dioxin.”

“And can I have my money, too?”

At a signal from Mr Sheng, one of the bodyguards handed Dioxin a slim white envelope.

“Two million US dollars, as agreed,” Sheng said. “Plus one thousand dollars to pay for the damage to your automobile.”

Dioxin opened the envelope and pulled out a single slip of paper on which was printed two seventeen-digit sequences of letters and numbers. He pulled the keyboard closer and swivelled the computer monitor so that it was facing him. The screen already showed the website of the international bank Sheng used to transfer funds. Dioxin quickly entered his details, then keyed in the two sequences of numbers. Seconds later, the balance in his account increased by two million one thousand dollars.

“A pleasure doing business with you, Sheng. Next time, the price is doubled.”

The old man nodded. “Of course.”

Using the mouse, Dioxin clicked on the website’s ‘Logoff’ button, and was about to push the monitor aside when he spotted something in the corner of the screen, in a small box labelled ‘RSS News’. Among the Chinese characters there was a single English phrase: ‘Titan Unmasked.’

“What the hell…?” Dioxin clicked on the link and a window opened to show an old photograph of Titan and Energy, side by side with the wedding photograph of a young married couple.

Dioxin turned to Junior Sheng. “What is this?”

“Internet.”

“I know that. What does it say? Translate for me.”

Haltingly, Junior translated the text on screen: “Mr Warren Wagner, revealed today as the true identity of the long-missing superhero Titan. His super-powered son is the new Titan. Also revealed are the two sons of Quantum, rescued from a crowd by the former hero Paragon. Mr Reginald Kinsella, newly-appointed leader of the Trutopian organisation, has offered the new heroes sanctuary among his people, in exchange for their help in saving the Earth from evil, poverty and corruption.”

“Enough.” Dioxin turned back to the old man. “Let’s make a deal, Sheng. You get me all the information you can on these people, and arrange for immediate passage to the US, and I’ll transfer the money back to you. Hell, I’ll even forget that your boy tried to kill me.”

Mr Sheng considered this. “Agreed. But what interest do these new heroes have for you?”

Dioxin stared at the screen. “I’ve got some old scores to settle…”

Warren Wagner ended the call on his mobile phone, then turned it off so that no one would be able to ring through. “Good news, for a change,” he said to his family and Renata. “Josh says that our passage has been fully cleared by the government. The transport’s already on the way. One of his people is going to stay here and take care of the house until we can arrange to sell it.”

“What about the Coopers?” Colin asked.

“Danny and Niall were picked up in town and their mother’s about to be collected from the flat. There’ll be someone watching their place, too.”

“Mr Wagner,” Renata said, “I don’t really like the idea of working with Josh. Not after what happened with his brother.”

“Josh is a lot different to Max,” Warren said. “He’s OK. You met him, didn’t you? I mean, before you were frozen.”

“Yeah. We captured Dioxin together.” Ten years earlier, Renata had been in her solid form when Ragnarök’s power-damping machine had stripped all the superhumans of their powers. She had remained frozen until a couple of months ago, when Maxwell Dalton had tried to duplicate Ragnarök’s machine: an accidental power-surge from the machine had somehow freed Renata from her solid state. Now, Renata was technically twenty-four, but physically still only fourteen. “Josh was only about twenty-three then, I think. But everyone thought that Max was OK, too and look how that turned out. He was prepared to kill thousands of people just because of one of Quantum’s visions.”

Colin said, “I’m willing to give Josh a chance. You can’t judge someone just because his brother is a nutter. Besides, it was Josh who sorted everything out after what happened in California.”

“What about the Trutopians?” Renata asked. “From what Reginald Kinsella was saying, we might be better off going to them instead. They’re trying to save the world without using violence.”

“Good luck to them,” Colin said. “But they can do it without my help. There was a documentary about them the other week. You know how they keep the peace? They have a system of points. You park your car illegally, that’s one point. Nick something from a shop, that’s three points. Play your stereo too loud, that’s another point. If you build up ten points, they throw you out. They just barge into your house, round up the whole family, put you on a truck and drive you to the gates. You know what that is? A dictatorship!”

“It’s not a dictatorship if there’s no dictator,” Renata replied. “It’s just peace at the cost of a little freedom. And it’s not like the people don’t know all that when they join.”

Colin’s mother sighed. “Can’t the two of you agree on anything?” To her husband, she said, “Two days ago they had a fight over whether the top part of a slice of bread was better than the bottom part!”

Warren laughed.

“Oh, that helps!” his wife said.

Under his breath, Colin muttered, “Top.”

“Bottom!” Renata said. “And I’ll tell you why—”

“Enough!” Caroline said. “The two of you, go upstairs and check your rooms one last time. Make sure there’s nothing there that you can’t leave behind.”

Reluctantly, Renata and Colin trudged up the stairs. They stopped on the landing and Renata said, “I think your mother is really worried.”

“The two of them are. I suppose we should be, too. But it’ll all turn out all right, won’t it?”

“How would I know?”

Colin shrugged and went into his bedroom. He stood just inside the door, looking around. Schoolbag – won’t be needing that for a while. He dropped to his knees, fished around under the bed and pulled out Toto, the ancient, frayed teddy bear that he’d had since his first birthday. Toto was covered in dust and cobwebs. Colin stared at him for a few moments, wondering whether he should be feeling some sort of sentimental attachment, then shrugged and tossed the bear aside.

He resumed searching and found a bundle of comics, two Matchbox cars with only three wheels between them and a lot more dust.

“Find anything?” Renata said from the doorway.

Colin stood up. “Nah.”

“Oh, you have a teddy!” She picked it up off the floor and tried to brush the dust off.

He blushed. “Oh, that old thing. I was going to throw that out.”

“What’s his name?”

“Toto.”

“After Dorothy’s dog?”

“Probably. I can’t remember. I’ve had him a long time.” He noticed the way Renata was holding the bear. “He’s yours, if you want him.”

“Well, he’s not in bad condition. It’d be a shame to throw him out. I could give him to my niece, if I ever get to meet her. I told you that Samantha has a two-year-old, didn’t I?”

“Yeah. Your sister’s, what, twenty-two now?”

“And my brother is nineteen. Which means that he’s five years older than me and he’s five years younger.”

“All your friends will be grown up, too.”

Renata nodded, hugging Toto close. “I know. But I try not to think about it too much.”

Colin smiled. “Does that work?”

“Not really. I keep thinking that it must be absolutely hell for my parents. Every year the whole world has a great big celebration for Mystery Day and all they can think of is that it’s the day their eldest daughter disappeared.”

“You went missing on the same day that all the other superhumans did, so maybe they figured out that you were a superhuman, too.”

“No, they didn’t. Josh said that a lot of families contacted the authorities after Mystery Day, asking whether their loved ones might have been superhumans. My family didn’t. It probably never crossed their minds.”

“You’re going to go home even if my parents and the others don’t think you should, aren’t you?” Colin asked.

“They wouldn’t be able to stop me; I’m probably the strongest person in the world. You’re the only one who even comes close and I know you won’t try to stop me. Will you?”

Colin shook his head. “Of course not! But you have to…” Colin froze. His superhuman hearing picked up a familiar sound from far away. “Transport’s here.”

They ran back downstairs, Renata still clutching the bear. “It’s here, Dad!” Colin shouted from the hall, as he picked up the largest of the suitcases.

He opened the front door and ignored the sudden onslaught of camera flashes and the cheering. The two police officers turned to look at him.

“Thanks,” Colin said.

“That’s what they pay us the big bucks for,” one of them replied. “But I should be thanking you. My wife’s cousin Dave was one of the people you rescued from the toy store tonight.”

“The shop assistant?”

“That’s him. You and Diamond saved his life.”

“Is he OK?”

“Cut and bruises, a few minor burns. He’s a lot better than he would have been if you two hadn’t been there…” The police officer’s voice trailed off as he became aware of a low rumbling noise. He glanced upwards and saw a large black vehicle descending slowly from the night sky. “What on earth is that thing?”

“That’s a StratoTruck,” Colin said.

“I want one of those!”

The StratoTruck was about the size of a transport helicopter, but shorter and wider. It had short wings at the back, and was powered by four large turbine engines that could pivot to provide forward thrust as well as lift.

Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.

Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».

Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.

Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.