The Superpower Project (21 page)

Megan flew upwards without thinking, smashing into the side of the huge metal bird. It pushed down, gripping her with its talons and swooping low, forcing her towards the river and under the water. Spluttering, Megan twisted around so she was facing away from Phoenix, then used its strength to propel herself upwards and over the top of the robot in an arc.

Hey
, thought Megan,
finally got that loop the loop right
.

John watched from the dockside. He could see Megan dodging and weaving in the sky, trying to evade Phoenix. He could also see that around their little dinghy, the river had started to glow. He kept trying to change, but he was too weak. Suddenly, there was a rumble from the sheds. John turned, fearing the worst. Sure enough, there was Evolve, rolling slowly towards him.

***

Beneath the river, unaware of the trouble above, seal-Cam had led Lily back down to the shield. Lily spotted the four sigil coins and removed them, but the gate remained open. They would need Jimmy and all the sigils in place to lock it again. She put them back in their slots and pointed upwards so seal-Cam could understand he needed to fetch TJ.

Cam was starting to think it was nearly all finished when Resilience reappeared out of the dark water behind Lily and grabbed her arm.

***

Meanwhile, back on the dinghy, Kevin realised it was his turn to be a hero.

“How can we help?” said TJ.

“I've got an idea,” he told TJ. “Mr Finn said you were on the same frequency as his robots, right?”

Mr Finn glared at Kevin, which made Kevin even more sure he was on the right track.

“That is correct,” said TJ.

“So… is there a way we could send a signal to help you control them?”

“It is possible to transmit the control signal using my Morse-code machine,” said TJ. “Then I would control the sculptures.”

“Excellent! What's the signal?”

“U. R. V.” said TJ. “Dot dot dash. Dot dash dot. Dot dot dot dash.”

Kevin tapped out the signal.

“Now issue this command,” said TJ. “Dash dash dash. Dot dot dash dot. Dot dot dash dot.”

“What's that?” said Kevin, tapping the signal out.

“Off.” said TJ.

Under the water, the lights went out in Resilience's eyes and he let go of Lily.

On the dockside, Evolve's slow rumble towards John abruptly ceased.

And in the sky above, Phoenix stopped, and plunged down to the river, dragging Megan with it as it fell.

TJ immediately dived in after her.

***

Megan had never really liked the water. Even though she had learned to swim well, she never enjoyed it. And now that she was so used to spinning and twirling in the air, being underwater made her feel much heavier than it ever had before. Although, to be fair, the fact that she was tangled up in a huge metal sculpture probably wasn't helping.

Below, she could make out the two dark shapes of seal-Cam and Lily, silhouetted against the green glow. She was sinking fast, looking down upon it all like one of those dreams where you are falling. With a slow bump, the statue settled at the bottom of the river.

At once, Cam and Lily were beside her, trying to pull her free from Phoenix. Megan was still holding her breath, but she knew if they couldn't loosen Phoenix's grip soon, she would be in serious trouble. So she was delighted to see TJ landing on the riverbed beside them. He pulled at the statue too, bending back the wings until Megan was free.

Lily grabbed her and began swimming quickly up to the surface. Even as they sped upwards, time seemed to slow down. Megan saw TJ place his hand on the shield's panel, turning it first right then left, and the gap in the riverbed slowly began to close. She caught one quick glimpse of strange moving colours within – what looked like electrical and chemical lights flickering into life – and then the shield was shut.

Kevin had rowed back over to the dock and was sitting beside John when the others finally emerged from the river. Mr Finn sat scowling in the dinghy.

“Did you do it?” said John, wincing as he stood up. “Is it locked?”

“The power under the river is safe,” said TJ. “We need only hide the sigils once again.”

“Brilliant!” said John. “I knew you could do it.”

“What is it we did exactly?” asked Lily.

Megan smiled. “Sorry Lily, you must think we're all really rude. We'd only just met and I was ordering you to dive under the river with a total stranger and fight giant robots.”

“Well, it's certainly one way to get to know new people,” said Lily.

“That's a good point,” said Megan, “proper intro-ductions. You know Cam and me, that's Kevin in the dinghy, the robot is called Tin Jimmy, but we all call him TJ, and this is John. He's sort of a retired guardian, and our coach!”

“Hello.” Lily smiled and gave an embarrassed wave.

“And I'm Mr Finn,” said Mr Finn through the rope in his mouth.

“Ignore him,” said Cam, “he's the baddie.”

“And he's in big trouble,” said Kevin. “It seems that
someone
has tipped off the police about all the strange weapons in his house and the mess his sculptures have made. They're on their way.”

Mr Finn glared at Kevin.

“And when I say ‘someone', I mean ME,” beamed Kevin.

“Yeah Kev, we got that,” said Cam.

Megan sat down next to Lily, who was still looking a bit confused.

“So Lily, I'm guessing you've figured out that we all have something in common?” asked Megan.

“Yes,” said Lily, “but I don't know what you mean by ‘guardian'. I saw you a few times before, at the dam and the river… and I wanted to say hello but… today I just knew I had to come here.”

“Was there a fizzing in your chest?” asked Kevin. “Like too much sherbet and curry powder mixed together?”

“That's it! What does it mean? Why do we have superpowers?”

John smiled. “You all have a lot of catching up to do,” he said. He began limping towards the warehouse door.

“We need to get you to a hospital first, John,” said Megan.

“Rubbish,” he said. “Wind on my face, grass underfoot and I'll be fine.” He turned and winked at Cam. “This guy knows what I mean.” John then hobbled back to Megan and gave her a little hug. “Thanks for rescuing me,” he said.

“We all did it together!” said Megan.

“No, I mean before. When I was hiding in a cave.” He quickly turned his attentions to the robot. “Jimmy! It was great to work with you again. I think it's fair to say you've aged better than me.”

“There have been many replacement parts,” said TJ.

John nodded and smiled. “Kevin, Lily, stick in with this lot, they'll see you right. Help me to the road Cam, would you? I think I'm feeling well enough to change and head home for a rest now.”

Cam walked slowly with John, out into the unusual sun of a spring day. The river sparkled, and the green of the hills shimmered in the heat.

“Do you remember when we were wolves, Cam?”

“Course I do. It was amazing.”

“Exactly. But you can have too much of a good thing,” said John. “Two feet on the ground, mind.”

“I know,” said Cam. “I won't forget.”

Cam watched the black cat pad gently out of the docks, heading for the wide-open spaces.

“I still can't believe we did it,” said Megan quietly, the enormity of the day before finally catching up with her. “We really did it…” She jumped up and hugged a surprised Cam, lifting him slightly off the ground, then she ran and kissed TJ on his tin cheek.

They had brought the new guardians to John's cave, but John was nowhere to be seen.

“Yeah, it was amazing!” said Kevin, slightly fading away with excitement. “What should we do next? Let's make some plans!”

“Chippy? I'm starving,” said Cam.

“We should have a team name,” said Kevin, “like Awesome Patrol or Mega-Amazing Force! I could draw us a logo.”

Megan laughed. “I do feel pretty mega-amazing.”

“I also think codenames would be cool,” said Kevin.

“I said that ages ago Kev, but we decided not to bother,” said Cam.

“No, I think you were right,” said Megan. “We can't keep shouting our own names at one another during fights with supervillains, can we?”

“Brilliant!” said Kevin, taking a folded-up bit of paper out of his pocket. “I've got some suggestions. For you Megan, how about Velocity Girl! Or Sparrowhawk!”

“Sparrowhawk?” said Cam. “That's rubbish.”

“I've already thought of mine,” said Megan, thinking of her gran. “I'm Kite.” Megan put on her best serious superhero face and floated up into the air with her hands on her hips, “Kite, scourge of the skies.”

“You sure you don't mean ‘Balloon, full of hot air'?” said Cam. “What's mine then Kev?”

“I was thinking you could be Metamorpho! Or Wereboy!”

Megan snorted. “Definitely Wereboy. Very cute. Sounds like a cuddly toy.”

“Cameron could be called The Amazing Hamster Boy,” said TJ. “Or perhaps just Hamster Boy.”

“I'd prefer Kid Kong,” said Cam.

“You change into all sorts of things though,” said Megan.

“Yeah but gorilla's the coolest one.”

“Just now,” said Megan, “but you might find cooler things to turn into.”

“Like a jellyfish perhaps,” said TJ, “or a sloth.”

“This is actually quite tricky, isn't it?” said Cam, ignoring TJ and thinking hard. “Cam-eleon?” Cam growled and did his superhero pose, “
Cam
-eleon, king of the jungle.”

“Lions are King of the jungle,” said TJ, “chameleons are tiny lizards.”

“Ok, the catchphrase needs work, but the name's staying.”

“What about you, Kevin?” said Megan.

“Wraith!” said Kevin.

“That's a bad-guy name,” said Cam. “He'd be like your invisible arch-enemy.”

“Shadow!”

“Goodies aren't called Shadow,” said Cam, “unless they are dogs or horses.”

“Ghost!” Kevin had clearly put a lot of thought into this.

“Ghost. Yeah,” said Megan. “Ghost sounds pretty cool.”

“Yeah, I've got my catchphrase too,” said Kevin, fading away completely. “Ghost – he's behind you!”

“Now you sound like a panto villain,” said Cam, shuddering, because he actually was quite scared of panto.

“Kite, Chameleon, Ghost and … what about you Lily?”

Lily had been sitting biting her nails and smiling as the rest of them talked.

“Oh. I don't want a name.”

“Course you do!” said Kevin. “I'm sure I could think of something good…”

Lily shook her head. “No, its ok.”

“Come on Lily,” said Megan. “Your power is incredible. I sank like a stone down there and you were all whirlpools and bubbles.”

“Really?” said Lily.

“Really,” said Cam. “You totally saved me and John.”

“Right Kev, let's hear some ideas,” said Megan.

“She-Kraken!”

Lily wrinkled her nose. “Uhm…”

“Atlantia!”

“Right…”

“Siren!”

“Another baddie,” said Cam, exasperated. “You haven't joined this team by mistake when you meant to join up with the League of Evil or something?”

Kevin wasn't even listening. “Sprite!”

“I like Sprite,” said Lily quickly.

“Yeah, I think that would totally suit you,” said Megan. “Excellent. Kevin, homework for tomorrow is team names and logos. Then I suppose we can think about masks.”

“Right now,” said Cam, “I'd be more interested in hot chocolate and biscuits. I don't think I'll ever feel warm after being in the river yesterday.”

Lily nodded. “Hot chocolate would be nice.”

“I will put the kettle on,” said TJ.

Megan watched as her robot trundled over to John's makeshift kitchen. She was sure she heard him say, “There are five.”

Her mind instantly turned to her gran again. It had taken a while, but she had managed to do what Gran had wanted: protect the town and the river with the help of her friends. The fizzing in her stomach felt a little different now: stronger, but warmer too. Yesterday, she had been exhausted; now she felt as if she could fly higher than the sun. She turned to look at Cam, and noticed that he had his hand on his chest. He nodded at her and smiled.

“So… not that I'm complaining… but does anyone want to tell me and Lily where the superpowers come from?” asked Kevin. “I'm not sure I can wait any longer.”

Megan smiled. “Sorry Kev.” She turned round to face them all properly. “I'll tell it to you as it was told to me. Almost three hundred years ago, not long after the very start of our little town, there was a storm…”