The OK Team 2 (10 page)

‘I hope that's enough,' says Chameleon. ‘And Torch? What's with the penis tattooed on your arm? It's a an odd choice.'

‘It's a flaming pointing finger, like his power,' explains The Gamer loyally.

Logi-Gal and I frown at one another. S.T.O.M.P. is definitely bad news.

‘And we haven't even discussed you getting yourself into a Knight-Hood Pact yet,' she says.

I frown. ‘One thing at a time.'

A female
Super Newsreader
is on the screen, wearing a black cape and lycra costume, with a small velvet mask.

ANCHOR:
This is Channel 78737 News. All Heroic news, all the time. Concern tonight over Triple A'er Southern Cross, who collapsed for the third time in recent weeks midway through a routine capture of armed bank robbers earlier today.

The screen cuts to shaky mobile phone footage. The unmistakably huge frame of Southern Cross, stars gleaming weakly on his chest, is being helped up by a local Hero, The Big V, and a policeman. Three bandits wearing masks and waving guns are sprinting away from the camera. Suddenly Golden Boy appears, standing serenely with his hands on his hips. The robbers are knocked out on impact. In the foreground, Southern Cross is sitting, sipping a glass of Super water.

ANCHOR (VOICE-OVER):
As this dramatic footage from the scene shows, the bandits would have escaped, if not for Golden Boy's timely intervention. Southern Cross reportedly fainted moments after entering the bank. After sitting quietly for a few minutes, he flew away, but unconvincingly.

The screen returns to the Super Newsreader.

ANCHOR:
Southern Cross released a statement later today blaming his lapses on a change of diet. He laughed off suggestions that his powers were weakening permanently and also refused to entertain speculation that his Triple A status might come under review if the episodes continue.

And now to other news . . .

CHAPTER 9
A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR

A
fter lunch, autumn sunshine is streaming through the window of my classroom and I'm trying not to fall asleep when two adults appear at the door. The maths teacher, Mr Snotwrangler, frowns and opens the door a crack for a whispered conversation. Finally, he looks at me. ‘Mr Retina. You have visitors. I'm sorry the study of algebra is getting in the way of your social calendar.'

I ignore the sarcasm and simply shrug at him as I scoot out the door. Two men are in the hallway. One is unshaven and has a ponytail, a crinkled suit and a novelty Ironman tie. It's Kyle Smythe-Davies, Cannonball's agent.

The other guy is very tall and well built. He has golden hair and is wearing a golden suit, which is smooth and stylish and fits his enormous body like a glove. He has a golden suntan and is wearing tiny, rimless golden eyeglasses. He is also wearing golden shoes and carrying a gold briefcase.

‘Can I help you?' I ask.

‘Focus, we need to talk,' says the man in the golden suit.

I gasp. ‘How did you know who I am? I'm not in uniform. My secret identity is blown?'

They both stare at me and the larger man raises his right hand to lift his barely-there eyeglasses off his face.

‘Focus, it's me. Golden Boy.'

‘Oh wow! I didn't recognise you out of costume!'

They stare at me.

‘You're kidding, right?' says Kyle.

I laugh a little too loudly. ‘Of course I am. Great to see you. What's up?'

‘Focus, it's Southern Cross. This collapsing thing is serious. We need to talk.'

We find a quiet spot outside in the schoolyard so nobody can overhear our Super conversation.

‘What's Kyle doing here?' I ask. ‘No offence, Kyle.'

‘I represent Southern Cross. I'm concerned about his marketability in the Hero Sponsorship Marketplace. But I'm here as an observer.'

Golden Boy rolls his eyes behind his disguise glasses.

‘Listen, we're worried. First the bad guys are using S.T.O.M.P. to magnify their powers and now one of our Triple A Heroes can barely stand up.'

‘I'm worried too,' I say. ‘But what's this got to do with me?'

‘We're following up all active Heroes to see if they've come across any peculiar events. Did Trolley King or Bushranger give any hint about S.T.O.M.P.?'

‘No, nothing. We reckon that Bushranger was more powerful than he should have been – controlling an entire park of trees – and Blink seems to have extraordinary control of his power, but the rest of his gang didn't seem to have powers beyond their Category.'

Golden Boy fiddles with his fake glasses as he says, a little too casually, ‘Did he mention anything about a star-stone?'

‘A star-stone? What is that?'

‘It doesn't matter what it is. It only matters if Bushranger said it.'

I stare at Golden Boy and Kyle, the dodgy Hero agent.

‘You're asking me if the Bushranger or his gang discussed a thing called a star-stone while they were kicking the OK Team out of the park?'

‘That's right.' Golden Boy's face is serious.

‘No, Golden Boy, he didn't.'

Golden Boy sighs, maybe with relief. ‘Fair enough. Thanks Focus. Oh, and one more thing, what's this about you getting into a Knight-Hood Pact with the Bushranger? Is that true?'

‘Is it bad?' I ask.

He stares. ‘You don't even know what it means, do you? Unbelievable.'

For a moment I feel like the hopeless first-time Hero I was when I first met Golden Boy. I remember the scorn in his voice and eyes that day. But I'm not that rookie anymore.

I'm a reasonably experienced, lowly-rated Hero about town. Aren't I?

This Knight-Hood Pact thing is starting to worry me.

From the
Hero Times
newspaper:

TIGERS FLY HIGH
IN HERO BALL UPSET

A new-look Flying Tigers outfit scored its first victory tonight with a shock upset of the highly-rated Ninjaneers.

AutoMan's rookie pair of Focus and Cannonball found their Hero Ball feet, with Cannonball flying and barrelling through the Ninjaneers for two goals in the 3-2 win.

GlueStik scored the Flying Tigers' winner after a neat pass from Focus who appeared out of nowhere goal-side of the Ninjaneers' chief defender, martial arts Hero Jackie Leechan.

‘This is encouraging,' AutoMan told the Hero Times. ‘Focus was only playing his second game and was patchy, but that's okay. Our team still has to learn to work together better, but tonight's result will help everybody's confidence.'

AutoMan admitted that the form of Freeze Frame, who stood motionless in a corner for the entire match, was a concern.

At home that night, still flush with Hero Ball victory, I log on to
herohints.com
and find an email from Mr Fabulous. I still get a thrill every time I see the name of one of the world's greatest-ever Heroes in my inbox. We didn't always see eye-to-eye during the time he was training the OK Team last year, but it worked out in the end and it means a lot to know he respects me, my power and my leadership of the team.

Rather than replying, I check Hero Skype and see that he's currently logged on, so I hit ‘connect'. There is a whirring sound and then a window opens on my computer screen, showing a red telephone.

It changes to green, with the handle off the phone, as Mr Fabulous's gruff New Yorker accent blares out of my Mac's speakers.

‘Hello? Fab.'

The webcam in my computer clicks in and I can see my image in one window on the screen, and Mr Fabulous in the other.

He's wearing a dressing-gown over his faded costume and his wrinkles have wrinkles on their wrinkles. He's also wearing a beanie with a golden F on it. You know you're talking to a big-time Hero when they have their own merchandise-beanies.

‘Mr Fabulous. It's Focus, in Melbourne.'

‘Fuzz Freak! How are you, boy? Still turning into a cloud every time a pretty girl walks by?'

For a second I think of a girl surrounded by gale-force wind and curse the webcam that shows my body fade to invisibility, even if only for a moment.

‘Haw haw,' Mr Fabulous cackles. ‘I thought so. How's life in Melbourne? Battled any decent Villains lately?'

‘Hero life is never boring,' I say. ‘The OK Team has a couple of new members. I've joined a Hero Ball team, which rocks. We just beat the Ninjaneers.'

‘Wow!' he says, genuinely impressed. ‘Aren't they that team of hard-case Hero engineers who go into war zones to rebuild schools and hospitals while also ninja-fighting the enemy?'

‘I believe so,' I say, although I had no idea that's who we'd been up against. If I had known, I would have been terrified. ‘Also, Cannonball has got a dodgy agent. And Torch got a bad tattoo.'

Mr Fabulous wheezes as he laughs. ‘Ah, kid Heroes never change. Spidey never talks about the tattoo he got very early in his career. What's news in the Melbourne Villian world?'

‘There's a new bad-guy called the Bushranger. He can make trees obey his commands,' I say.

‘Ha! Excellent power.' Mr Fabulous nods. ‘Reminds me of a fella I fought back in 1952, or was it '53? Had an army of mutant sunflowers.'

‘This Bushranger has decided he doesn't like me. He tricked me into agreeing to some kind of pact.'

‘A pact?' Mr Fabulous leans in to the camera. ‘What sort of pact, son?'

‘Well, apparently it's called a Knight-Hood Pact.'

Mr Fabulous stares out of the screen. ‘You signed up for a Knight-Hood Pact? With this tree-loving Bushranger?'

‘I didn't sign,' I say meekly. ‘I just said yeah, okay.'

‘You agreed then. Well, zowie, Focus! That was brave.'

‘I got mad. He called me a kid and told me to stop playing in the adult world.'

‘Oh Hazy . . . so not brave at all. Just stupid. That's the sort of dumb taunt that I imagine Cannonball would fall for, not you.'

‘So what have I agreed to, exactly?'

‘Will you listen to this?' He shakes his head. ‘The kid doesn't even know what he's signed up for. Well, Fuzzy, it's a Knight-Hood Pact. In fact, its full name is a Dark Knight-Red Hood Pact. It's an agreement between a Superhero and a Super-Villain that they will commit to battling each other, for the rest of their careers, to the death.'

‘To the – ?'

‘Yeah, to the death, genius. You agreed without checking . . . I say you got it coming. It goes all the way back to Bats and the laughing guy. Did you know he was the Red Hood before he started smiling too much and dyed his hair green? Wiki it. Anyway, they started it. No other Heroes are allowed to step in and sort out the bad guy . . . It's up to the Hero or Heroes within the Knight-Hood Pact. Why do you think Supes can't just fly in and sort out Bats's enemies in an afternoon? Personally speaking, I could have taken out most of Spidey's enemies without breaking a sweat, if it weren't for Pacts.'

My head is swimming by now. ‘So I'm the only Hero now allowed to take on the Bushranger?'

‘More or less, yeah. Your little team can get involved in the wider battle. But so can any henchmen he might happen to have.'

‘He's a cheater, Sir. He's supposed to be Category 2, but he fights more like a Category 5. Golden Boy says it might be because of something called S.T.O.M.P.?'

‘Serum That Overly Magnifies Powers? These crooks are on that stuff ?'

‘It looks like it, Mr Fabulous.'

‘So you've agreed to a to-the-death Pact with some juiced-up Super-Villain, and you're still a Level D?'

I don't say anything.

Mr Fabulous chuckles again. ‘How's the rest of your day going, kid?'

CHAPTER 10
FIRING THE CANNON

W
ucka wucka wucka blort!
The Gamer defies gravity as he runs at full speed horizontally along a wall, while wrapping a rope around three of the notorious Hardware Gang, a group of Category 1 bad guys who steal from hardware superstores. One of them throws a wheelbarrow at The Gamer, but he's wearing an ‘iron fist' upgrade that he won on ‘Challenge Stage Five' in his alternate gaming universe, so he swats the wheelbarrow away with a loud THWONG!