Rise of the Heroes (2 page)

It was cold, but crystal blue skies offered a perfect day for laser tag in the forest that stood at the end of the road. Brown leaves crunched noisily underfoot, but the flaxen fronds that still clung to the trees offered just enough cover to hide. As usual the game between Toby and Pete was fast and furious. Toby was the more athletic of the two, and pressed his advantage by sprinting through the trees, leaving Pete exhausted by the time he caught up. Plus, Pete was never a good shot. In fact, had the gun been a high-energy laser rather than a toy, half the trees in the forest would have been on fire. Now
that
would have been fun.

But after almost an hour of punishing laser combat, the sky had glowered. Bloated clouds rolled across the sun and brought a heavy shower that forced the boys to retreat from the forest. The autumns had become increasingly erratic, thanks to their parents' legacy of global warming. By the time they reached the backyard gate, the shower had bloomed into a torrential downpour
that hammered a rhythmic staccato against the backyard furniture.

And the back door was locked from the inside.

“Lorna!” Toby yelled as he rattled the handle and thumped on the wooden frame, flakes of old paint floating to the ground. “It's raining! Open up!”

Pete had caught up and now joined Toby in beating on the door. “Why is it locked?” he asked, cold raindrops dripping across his glasses and blurring his vision.

“My sister, that's why.”

On cue, shrill laughter from the window above them got Toby's and Pete's attention. Lorna brushed her long dark hair from across her face as she watched her brother's predicament. A flash of blond hair appeared alongside to watch with equally wicked amusement: Emily.

“Getting wet?” taunted Lorna. “Not a good day to be stuck outside.”

Toby stood back, waving his laser-tag rifle in frustration. “Oh, very funny. Very
clever
. You'll pass your finals in no time with comments like that!”

Pete was not as adept in sarcasm as his friend and shouted, “Can't you see we're soaked?”

Lorna was unmoved. “Serves you both right!”

Pete scowled. “What did I do?”

“You didn't let us play your stupid game,” chided Lorna.

The rain was coming down harder; fat drops slapped
their faces, and each strike infuriated Toby. “If it's so stupid, then why are you upset?”

“Upset? Do I
sound
upset? I'm having a great time! I'm in here, nice and warm. And
dry
.”

Toby held back his angry reply; he didn't want to risk aggravating his sister any more. He swapped a glance with Pete, who knew what was coming next. The ultimate weapon. “If you don't let us in right now … then I'll tell Mom when she gets back.”

“A little old for that, aren't you?”

So maybe the “ultimate weapon” didn't apply as much when you're twelve, or in Lorna's case, an unscrupulous thirteen and a half.

“Looks like you're stuck!” said Emily with delight.

Lorna nodded. “And after all the stupid tricks you two have played on us, nothing's going to change our minds.”

No sooner had the words slipped from her mouth than a jagged lightning bolt stabbed the ground with multiple forks, blasting a pair of heavy branches off a solid oak tree that had dominated the backyard for over a hundred years. With a terrifying crack of electricity, fragments of wood shot across the grass.

Lorna whitened, looking up in shock. Toby and Pete spun around; the smell of charred wood invaded their nostrils as several scarred branches crashed to the floor in a shower of embers just a few yards away.

* * *

Toby's scalp was red by the time Lorna had finished vigorously toweling it dry. Now his hair pointed in every direction, as if he'd been electrocuted.

“Stop it! It hurts,” complained Toby as he nudged Lorna back.

“I said I'm sorry!” sighed Lorna. And to her surprise, she actually was. Like most siblings, she and Toby fought occasionally (or constantly if you listened to their parents), but it was never too serious.

The four of them sat around the large, solid-timber kitchen table, with a bottle of Coke left open. Pete refilled his glass for the fourth time, pausing only to burp loudly.

“You almost killed us out there!” said Toby.

Lightning licked across the heavens as if to emphasize his point. It was now a tempest outside, the sky as dark as charcoal.

“Which means we're stuck with each other in here,” warned Lorna.

Pete and Emily exchanged a surreptitious glance. They always watched their friends bicker—and while they openly supported them, inside they wished they'd both just get over it. Some disagreements had been known to continue for days. And this was just the kind of thing Pete wanted to avoid.

“Well, just keep out of my way and we'll be fine,” said Toby. “No more arguments.”

“Fine. We'll do our own thing.”

“Good,” said Toby sullenly.

“There are lots of things we can still do inside.”

There was a long pause.

Lorna's and Toby's eyes locked as though reading each other's thoughts. Toby's leg muscles tensed, and by the time he was on his feet Lorna had already bolted ahead of him through the kitchen door.

Like her brother, Lorna enjoyed sports, in particular cross-country running. But Toby had the advantage in short-distance sprints and he shoved her against the wall as they passed in the hallway, leaving her shouting after him as he entered their father's office.

“Toby! Stop! That's so not fair!”

Emily and Pete followed in their wake, eager to join the chase but unaware of their destination.

The office was lined with reference books, framed maps, and photographs of exotic destinations, souvenirs from their father's constant traveling. A heavy desk the size of a dresser sat in front of massive bay windows, offering an impressive view of the backyard and the angry storm.

Toby swerved around the side of the desk and slipped straight into the comfortable leather reclining chair, situated directly in front of a large LCD computer monitor.
He stabbed the desktop computer's power button as Lorna sprinted into the office and sat heavily on his lap, knocking the breath from him.

“Get off!” Lorna shouted, punching his arm for emphasis.

“Why should I?” said Toby, trying to push her off with little success. He swallowed the comment he was about to make about Lorna being heavy. He knew mentioning her weight would turn the situation nuclear.

Pete and Emily now had entered the room as the computer booted up, its cooling fan noisily whirring away inside.

Lorna pressed her weight harder on Toby's stomach before she climbed off him.

“Emily and I were going to use that!” she protested.

Toby grinned as the Windows theme played from the computer's speakers. “Tough. I was here first. You could've used it while we were outside.” His hand had already maneuvered the mouse so he could select the Internet icon. One click and the broadband connection took him online as thunder boomed outside.

“We have homework to do!” protested Emily.

“Well, go do it then,” said Pete smugly as he dragged a high-backed wooden chair across the room to sit by Toby.

Emily glared at him. “I meant
on
the computer.”

But Toby and Pete already had their noses in the
on-screen browser, scrutinizing the numerous links on the colorful homepage that had appeared.

“Check out the movie trailers,” said Pete, placing an oily fingerprint on the screen as he pointed to the link. He glanced up at Emily. “If you have homework to do, don't you have a computer at home?”

Emily shook her head. She had an older brother at home and was used to having to fight to get her own way. She was annoyed at Pete—his attitude always seemed to change around Toby. When he was alone with Emily they had fun and he was always looking out for her. But as soon as Toby entered the equation Pete would side with him no matter what. She wasn't going to let him get his own way this time. She opened her mouth to respond—as lightning lit up the room like a flashbulb. A second later thunder clapped the air with astonishing fury, making them all jump.

“Storm's getting worse,” warned Emily.

Lorna followed her gaze outside as she had a troubling thought. “Toby, I don't think you should be on the phone during a thunderstorm.”

Toby didn't look up, as a series of the new Hollywood movie trailers appeared on-screen. “We're not on the phone. We're on the Net.”

“Yeah, but it still uses the phone line, stupid.”

Pete looked up at her, his mouth forming the words
to agree. But whatever sound came out was masked by a blinding flash of lightning and a simultaneous, sonorous roll of thunder that made the pictures on the wall rattle as if a bomb had exploded outside.

Which was close to what had actually happened. Lorna saw the jagged fork of lightning lick the top of the telephone pole at the end of the backyard, and when she closed her eyes she still had the ghostly afterimage imprinted on her retina. None of them saw the electric bolt crackle along the phone cable toward the house.

The computer made a high-pitched death rattle before the screen went blank.

Pete's heart was hammering from the momentary excitement. “Wow! That was close!”

Lorna shook her head. “It struck the telephone pole. Look, it killed the computer.”

Toby stared at the blank screen in horror. “Oh God, no. Not now.”

A vengeful smile tugged Lorna's lips. “Dad is going to kill you for breaking his computer! All his work files are on it!”

Toby felt a sudden sickness in the pit of his stomach. Lorna was right. Their father was an archaeologist and, as far as Toby knew, all his research was stored on the hard drive. He just prayed that his father had had the foresight to insure against exactly this type of situation.

“Dad's not even in the country!” He wondered where exactly he was; somewhere in Mexico, Mom had said. His work meant that it was normal for him to disappear for weeks on end with only a satellite phone for communication, and that was usually temperamental at best.

“Lightning could have blown the fuse, or even the power pack!” said Emily.

Pete looked at her skeptically. “Oh, you're a PC expert all of a sudden?” he teased.

Emily rolled her eyes and tried to hide her smile.

Pete examined the casing. “Fan's still on in the computer. Maybe it's just the screen?”

Toby thumbed the monitor's power button with a faint trace of hope. His spirits lifted as an image slowly returned to the screen.

“Thank God!” he said, breathing out a huge sigh of relief. He flicked a victorious look at his sister. “It's not broken.”

Lorna made a face. “Well, you should get off it before you do break it.”

Not willing to push his luck any further, Toby reluctantly agreed. “Point taken.”

His hand found the mouse, guiding it across the virtual desktop to shut the system down, when Pete suddenly grabbed his wrist to stop him.

“Wait! That's not the Web site we were on before.”

The movie trailers had been replaced by a completely different set of icons and text, all of it unfamiliar.

“So? You'd still better turn it off,” warned Lorna.

Toby waved his hand to silence her. “Hold on, Lorn. Take a look. This is weird.”

Lorna and Emily crowded next to the boys. A bold banner filled the top of the screen: “HERO.COM.”

“This another of your stupid comic-book sites?” Emily asked.

Pete pointed to the screen, leaving a new spot where his finger had been. “Look at the Web address.”

“Geekybrother.com, by any chance?” said Lorna smugly.

The address bar on the screen was devoid of the usual “http:” or “www” prefixes and instead was replaced by a series of strange characters. “What kind of site is Hero.com?” asked Lorna.

“One that's not on the Internet,” said Toby ominously, as another flash of lightning and a thunder roll indicated the storm was retreating. But the rain outside still drummed heavily.

Underneath the banner, a series of four icons stood out. Toby passed the pointer over each; it changed to a hand, indicating the icons were separate links to click on. But other than the enigmatic title, there was not another word in English … or any other language for that matter.

“Click on something,” urged Pete.

“Okay. The first symbol, I guess,” said Toby, motioning toward a swirling whirlpool. He clicked and moments later the Web page changed to another series of icons. These looked more familiar: a stickmanlike figure in various poses: flexing muscles, lines coming from its eyes, stretched horizontally, shimmering, bloated …. There were so many that Toby had to scroll down the page to see them all.

“This is stupid,” said Emily. “It's just another boring, nerdy Web site.”

With a faint pop, a smaller window appeared on the screen. Paragraphs of text wavered between dozens of languages before finally solidifying into English.

“I can't read that. What's it say?” said Pete, taking off his glasses and rubbing the dirty lenses vigorously on his shirt.

Toby read aloud, “Welcome to Hero.com. As new visitors you have a free two-day trial download. Maximum of one download per person. Be sure to check out the mission board and don't forget to fight on for justice!”

Silence filled the room as they each took in the words.

“Junk,” said Lorna. “I've heard about these things. They ask you to download what turns out to be a virus onto your computer then they take all your bank information.”

“It's called phishing,” said Pete.

Emily glanced at him. “You would know that, wouldn't you?”

“I know a lot of stuff,” he snapped back defensively.

“So what's the harm? I don't have a bank account,” said Toby.