The Doomsday Device (Teen Superheroes Book 2)

The Doomsday Device (The Teenage Superhero Series)

Darrell Pitt

Copyright 2012 Darrell Pitt

Published at Smashwords

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Prologue

My name is Axel.

No last name. No middle name. Just Axel.

If people ask me my surname I tell them it’s Smith. I know that’s not terribly original, but it sounds so phony people never guess it really
is
fictitious. There’s a good reason why I don’t have a last name and here it is.

Okay. Deep breath.

I was part of a secret experiment carried out by an organization known as The Agency. This organization works in conjunction with an alien race known as The Bakari. They’ve been here on Earth for thousands of years. The experiment was known as Project Alpha and their goal was to create superheroes.

Why? The Bakari don’t want to interfere in human affairs, but neither do they want to see us destroy ourselves. One day the human race will join the intergalactic club. They’re still waiting for us to evolve enough as a species for that day to arrive.

During the process my memory was wiped and I was given amazing powers. I can manipulate air. I can compress it and turn it into a shield or a weapon. I can shape it into an invisible glider on which I can fly or I can create a vacuum leaving someone else struggling for breath.

So don’t make me mad.

And here’s the rest of it. I’m seventeen (I think – it’s hard to know when you have no memory) with brown hair, brown eyes and a small scar on the left side of my chin. I’m a native of the old US of A, but don’t ask me which part because I don’t know.

My looks won’t put me on the front cover of any magazines, but I’m also not ugly either.

Oh, and I’m not alone. There’s Chad. He’s about the same age, but he’s from Norway. He can create fire and ice. Also, he’s a pain (more on that later).

His sister Ebony looks about the same age. Like her brother, she has blonde hair and blue eyes. She is attractive and can transmute objects to any substance she wants. That’s handy if you want to turn coal into diamonds and you don’t have twenty million years to spare.

Next on the list is Brodie. She’s an Australian with red hair and a pretty face. She’s my girlfriend. Kind of. In a way.

Confused?

Not half as much as me.

Then there’s Dan. He’s a couple of years younger. Probably about fourteen. He’s Chinese, but he speaks perfect English. He can manipulate metals with his mind. He can also pick up on the emotional states of the other members of our group. So if one of us is in pain – he’s the first to know. He can also manipulate people’s minds too. If you were playing poker against him you would probably want to double check your cards. Maybe those aren’t three six’s you’re carrying.

They could be aces.

And then there’s Ferdy. How would I start to describe Ferdy? Let’s see. He’s a little younger like Dan. He has a brain like a computer. He can remember amazing facts and do incredible calculations in his head. We’re pretty sure he’s autistic because he doesn’t seem to be able to communicate with the rest of us. He spends a lot of time in his own world, so we do our best to draw him out as part of the gang.

Oh, I forgot something.

He has super strength and can lift up a bus.

So don’t make him mad either.

And that’s us. We’re teenage superheroes, but right now we’re trying to lay low and get our lives back together. The Agency gave us a campervan (actually we stole it from them) and we’re renting a house outside Las Vegas. The Agency allowed us to go, but we agreed they could call on us for help if required.

The people at The Agency are not our friends, but we hope they’re not our enemies either. If they leave us alone we’ll do the same.

So, that’s us.

Chapter One

Everything was fine until someone decided to blow up the plane.

I was sitting towards the rear. One of those air crash investigation programs said that passengers sitting towards the rear have a better chance of surviving an air crash. Call me afraid. Call me a coward. Call me whatever you want. So what if I have super powers? It doesn’t mean I’m invincible.

We were returning from Dallas on yet another one of our trips to discover our origins. When we left The Agency we took with us an encrypted book containing lists of addresses from across the planet. So far we had visited about twenty of them expecting to discover that we had lived at one of these premises.

So far we had turned up exactly – nothing.

Some of the addresses were residential homes. Others were businesses. A couple were factories. We could find no link between us and the addresses.

We had not given up hope, but we were discouraged. One of the scientists at The Agency – Doctor Sokolov – had told me some crucial information with her dying breath. She had told me I had a brother.

Somewhere out there I had a family member. All I had to do was find him.

I let out a deep sigh and glanced around the interior of the plane. Dan was seated next to the window. We had taken a lot of flights over the last six months – ever since we had acquired our super powers – and he always grabbed the window seat. Watching the world fly by held no great allure for me.

I had done plenty of flying.

Most of it without an airplane.

The jet was travelling from Dallas to Las Vegas. I was sitting next to Dan. Brodie, Ebony and Chad were towards the front adjacent to the wings. It was a typical flight. Travelling in a plane is actually quite boring when you’ve flown without one. I had watched most of the in-flight movie. Then I’d moved onto a book. Finally I had tried closing my eyes to grab forty winks.

I opened my eyes and glanced at my watch. Thirty minutes till we were due to land.

Not my idea of fun.

Dan sat forward and rubbed his forehead.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

He did not immediately reply. Finally he said, “Yeah.”

He didn’t sound alright.

“I’ve got one of those headaches,” he said.

I knew what he meant by
those
headaches.

The Alpha Project had left Dan with an odd set of abilities. He was able to control metal objects. He could also manipulate people’s minds like in Star Wars. You know, like those old Jedi mind tricks. In addition he could pick up the feelings and thoughts of other people. It had begun with us, but over recent months he had started to hear the thoughts of other people too.

“What can you hear?” I asked him quietly.

He didn’t say anything for the longest time. Then he said, “A guy. He’s got…bad thoughts.”

Bad thoughts.
That could mean anything from being a serial killer to painting graffiti on city buildings.

“He’s got…” Dan stopped. “He’s carrying some sort of weapon.”

I looked across the rows of seats before us. This was a 747 carrying a full load of passengers. From memory that numbered around four hundred and fifty passengers. Air marshals were not unusual on flights. Not only were they authorized to carry a weapon, but they were allowed to use them in case of emergencies.

“A bomb,” Dan said quietly.

“Wassat?”

Now Dan had my full attention. He looked up at me with fear in his eyes. “He’s carrying a bomb around his waist. I think he…killed his wife this morning. I can see blood. Lots of it. He’s been planning this for ages. This morning…this morning was the trigger.”

A chill choked my spine.

“Who is it?” I asked.

Dan shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“You’ve got to focus,” I told him. “You’ve done it before.”

He
had
done it before. He had picked out the thoughts of a single person who had stolen jewelry from a store. Unfortunately it had taken almost half an hour and left him with a blinding headache.

“I’m not sure -.”

“Just try. I’ll tell the others.”

I started down the aisle, swerving by children and their parents heading to the toilets and the attendants trying to force feed the passengers. I could just make out Brodie’s red hair. She and Chad were sitting on the window side. Ebony was on the other side of the aisle chatting to Ferdy. She had taken a liking to him and seemed to have made it her personal mission to draw him out of his shell.

I wasn’t too sure how much success she was having. Ferdy obviously suffered from some kind of autism, but without professional advice it was hard to work out the best course of action. So far all our knowledge had been gleaned from the internet.

Chad and Brodie’s heads were close to each other, so close in fact that I thought, for one horrible split second, that they were kissing.

How stupid
, I thought.

Still, it was a disconcerting thought.

I needed to speak to them in private, but jumbo jets are not exactly renowned for privacy. Kneeling next to Brodie, I gripped her armrest and bent low.

“Hey guys,” I said. “We need to talk.”

Brodie turned to me laughing. “Axel! Chad was just telling me the funniest story.”

“I’m sure. Look Dan just told me -.”

“Why you looking so serious, Leader man?” Chad asked. “Did you get a boo-boo?”

There are times I really hate Chad. Sometimes I think he was put on this Earth to drive me crazy. Certainly, he is a friend. Absolutely, I am glad he’s on our side.

Still, I want to kill him sometimes.

I spoke in a hushed tone. “Dan thinks someone has a bomb on this plane.”

Well, that sort of information will kill most conversations very quickly.

“What?” The smile fell from Brodie’s face. “Who?”

“He’s trying to work that out.”

“What do you suggest?” Chad asked. “Should we tell the crew?”

I shrugged. “Tell them what? Dan can read minds? There’s a loony about to blow up the plane?”

“What do we know?” Brodie asked.

“It’s a man,” I said. “That’s all.”

“That narrows it down to roughly half the passengers,” Brodie said.

“Probably less,” Chad said. “Children are maybe five or ten percent.”

I nodded.

“We need to conduct our own search,” Brodie suggested. “See if we can spot him ourselves.”

“He won’t exactly be wearing a sign,” Chad said.

“No, but he might be agitated,” Brodie said.

He
might be agitated? I knew
I
certainly was. Glancing behind me, I saw Ebony watching us curiously. I leant close to Brodie.

“Tell Ebony what’s happening,” I told her. “It’s probably best to leave Ferdy where he is. I’ll see if Dan has any more information.”

I started back towards the rear. As I wandered past everyone, I scanned their faces for signs of guilt. Did any of the men look like they had just murdered their wives? One of them was engaged in a furious discussion with his partner. He looked like he
wanted
to murder his wife. A guy in the middle of a row of seats was staring into space. He was wearing an odd expression.

But
how
odd, exactly? Did he look
psychotic
odd?

Then there was the guy sitting next to the window who was nervously wiping his face. Why did he look so nervous?

By the time I reached Dan I felt confused and he looked unwell.

“Any luck?” I asked.

“Not much,” he said. “I’ve got a splitting headache and…”

“And what?”

He shook his head. “I think the guy’s carrying more than a bomb. I think he’s also got a gun.”

A gun? How was such a thing possible? Ever since 9/11 security on all domestic flights had been ramped up to the max. How could someone possibly smuggle a gun and a bomb on board a plane?

It was impossible, unless they had some sort of exemption to carry a weapon on board the flight and the only person allowed to do that would be -.

“Dan,” I said urgently. “Could the person be a sky marshal?”

“A sky marshal?”

“Yes. You know. They’re a kind of plain clothes police officer allowed to carry weapons on a plane. They’re supposed to look after security, but -.”

But in this case the man was probably insane.

Dan nodded slowly. “I think you’re right. I’m getting a sense that he always carries a gun. I think he’s some kind of cop.”

I glanced over the rows of seats. Ebony and Brodie were working their way up the aisle closest to us, surreptitiously examining the passengers. Chad was combing the other aisle. He was not quite so secretive. Actually he looked like he was seeking a fight.