Trainee Superhero (Book Three) (7 page)

He slams into the titan’s side and the whole
creature rocks from side to side. He’s doing a lot of damage, but
not enough.
Golden Zeus
is back, teaming up with a superhero
called
Lion Heart
who has a huge red mane He starts blasting
away with a plasma cannon, but he’s nowhere near as accurate as
Never Lies
and he doesn’t achieve much.

Free Man
rushes past me in a blur of
energy but is stopped suddenly by a host of tiny seeker missiles.
An octo-ape lands on his head but is blown away by
Lion
Heart
is on the ground, surrounded by octo-apes. He punches one
into a building, blasts another with lasers and launches a missile
that spirals out of control and hits a tree. A cube tank hits him
hard, and he doesn’t get up.

This is not looking good.

The titan keeps moving, oblivious to
everything we throw at it. It will hit the city soon, and all I can
think of is those long queues of cars filled with people.

“This thing isn’t stopping,” I say, “I don’t
think we are hurting it.”

“This titan can heal itself!”
Never
Lies
says.

“And the
Elite Guard
are getting their
asses kicked!” I say.

“Is
Silver Shadows
with the boss?” she
asks, and I nod.

She cuts me out of the tree and we fly back
to
Dark Fire
and
Silver Shadows
. I see what she
means: the creature is growing new turrets and horns as it moves,
and heavy plates of armor are sliding over whatever holes we have
managed to make in its skin.

“Saucerhat!” I yell back, but she doesn’t
respond.

“Three minutes still!” she yells at
Dark
Fire
, “and this thing is healing itself.”

“Focus fire here!” says
Dark Fire
, and
together we burn our way through the red armor.
Golden Zeus
joins us when he sees what we are doing, but not
The
General
. He focusses on the creature’s massive legs, trying to
break them. The titan shudders each time
The General
hits
it, but it doesn’t stop.

Tenchi and I guard the others as they work
together to pull up strips of armor up.
Simon Smith
lands
beside me and places a hand on the titan; it shudders and its
healing slows.

A spider-scorpion climbs over the titan’s
back and rushes us, but Tenchi cuts it into two. Its tail wiggles
across the titan’s back, and I blast it.

“Does it get worse than this?” Tenchi
asks.

“Sometimes it’s raining,” I say with a
smile.

Together we seem to be making progress. They
have stripped away the titan’s metal hide down to the strange metal
tubes that form its arteries and muscle.
Dark Fire
disappears inside the beast, burning his way deeper. He emerges
after a few seconds.

“When I say move, we move!” he says.

“Time!” shouts
Never Lies
.

“Move!”

We take off together, the faster supers
helping the slower ones through the air as we struggle to gain
height. The titan fires missiles and lasers up at us but we evade
the worst of them.
Perth Rose
is waiting in the sky, the red
bag on his shoulder glowing brightly.

“Land!” orders
Dark Fire
, and even the
Elite Guard
do as he says.

Dark Fire
lands on the grass.

“Gather!” he yells loud enough that all hear
him.

We land beside him. We are all tired, all
injured, all without hope. I don’t think I can even take off
again.

“Ten seconds,”
Dark Fire
says.

“We’re too close,” says
Never
Lies
.

Perth Rose
glides out of the sky, down
towards the monster, and disappears into the gash we managed to
cut.

No time for escape, anyway. I guess we die
here.

“This would be a good death,” says
Dark
Fire
, “but I’m not ready to die today!”

He adjusts something on his suit and places
his hands on my arm. Power surges through my suit and my shield
powers up, expanding into a dome of over-locking green plates. I’ve
never felt so much energy in my suit. The rest of the team add
their power to my shield until the air is buzzing with blue discs
that form a dome around us.

“Is this going to work?” asks
Golden
Zeus
doubtfully.

Personally I doubt that it will, but what do
I know?

“You can do this, dude,” says Tenchi.

“Focus!” orders
Dark Fire
.

The titan explodes like a volcano, casting
out chunks of burning and liquid metal into the air. The debris
rains down on us, hammering my shield. The air fills with smoke and
I start coughing inside my helmet. My lungs are burning but I need
to keep my shields up to save myself and my friends. I drop down to
one knee, but unseen arms grab me and help me to my feet.

A massive metal leg lands on us, rolling off
my shield with a
bang
loud enough to wake the dead. Somebody
swears in an Australian accent. A second shockwave hits us and my
shield thins, falters and then fades entirely. I gasp in surprise
and power rolls through my body and arcs to the ground. There’s
nothing more for me to do, and all I know is that the next hit will
be my last. I close my eyes.

Nothing more falls from the sky, and after a
few seconds I relax enough to open my eyes.

Still alive.

Silver Shadows
is leaning on
Never
Lies
, and I don’t think that either
Free Man
or
Home
Brew
made it. The other supers limp off, a couple leaping into
the sky.

“What about
Three Brothers
?” Tenchi
asks.

I had forgotten about her, but that’s okay.
She has a few minutes to disarm the bomb, time enough to save
herself. We could even help her, if she needed.

“There she goes,” says
Dark Fire
,
pointing at the small figure rising into the sky. She flies away
from the city, away from us, away from any chance of survival.

“What is she doing?” I yell.

“The bomb cannot be disarmed,”
Dark
Fire
says quietly, “look away.”

He doesn’t, and neither do we. I follow
Three Brothers
until she is a speck in the sky before losing
her.

“She’s entering the clouds,” says Tenchi.

The explosion tears through the sky in
streams of blinding golden light. It’s a minute before the
shockwave hits. It's far away, but still strong enough to throw us
around. I blink until my eyesight returns. There is no sign of
Three Brothers
, or of the cloud she flew into. The sky is a
perfect blue, and the sun is shining.

And
Dark Fire
looks as tired as I
feel.

“Stopping the titans was the
Elite
Guard
s’ greatest victory. The only lesson we need to take from
those battles is how mighty our saviors truly are.”

-Superheroes Corp official propaganda.

“I’m seventy-three years old, I’m the most
experience superhero alive, and yet I’m still learning new things
every day. So don’t get cocky, youngster.”

-
Past Prime
, email to
Silver
Shadows
.

I had always thought winning would feel
good.

The world will never know how many of the
Cerberus Brawlers
we lost to the titans, or how many
injuries we sustained. We had one mass funeral. The steward
Bag
Pipes
played a moving dirge as we said goodbye to some of our
best and bravest. There were a lot of fireworks that night, one for
each lost hero.

It was heartbreaking, but the war
continues.

“We will be getting new recruits,”
Never
Lies
tells me at lunch, “but until then we need you to be on
call at all times. It’s going to be tough.”

The next three days are a blur of non-stop
missions. Our territory has been increased to most of the world,
yet our team has shrunk. We respond to a lot of saucers, but they
are mostly small and easily defeated.

I’ve found my place in the team: I’m the guy
who goes in first to distract the enemy and takes a beating while
the rest of my team do some damage. It’s not a job that boosts my
ego, but I don’t mind. It feels good to have a function, and I can
take it. I even took command of a squad for a short time when
Born Lucky
was knocked out by a missile. I didn’t claim to
be as smart as
Never Lies
, but we did okay.
Pet Shark
did get covered in some weird green alien goo, which I thought was
hilarious until I got covered in it, too.

The constant fighting is exhausting. I’m one
of the few superheroes still capable of going on call, mostly
because my mom’s little cyborg enhancements are keeping me alive.
The new suit helps, too, but I’m still covered in bruises.

I’m lying on my bed when
Never Lies
opens my door and pokes her head in.

“Not now,” I plead, although I don’t know
what she wants.

“Dammit, trainee, get to the operator area,”
Never Lies
says, and then slams the door.

I get up, pull on my orange shirt and walk
out of my room. Tenchi is waiting for me in the corridor. He looks
as tired as I feel, and one of his arms is in a cast. I don’t even
remember that happening.

“Gatling drake got me when we were in Cape
Town,” he reminds me.

His tat-a-gotchi, the manic red shrew, is
half-trapped under the cast. It does not look pleased.

“Ready for another mission?” I ask, but I
know he isn’t, because he needs two arms to swing the massive sword
he carries.

Tenchi cocks his head to one side as if
listening for something. I think it might be his little voices
again, but I don’t want to ask because I thought he only heard them
when he was suited up.

“I can hear music,” he says.

I can’t hear anything, but I know we better
get moving. I sigh, and we start walking towards the operators’
area. We pass a few stewards and technicians who do their best to
keep out of our way, but otherwise the corridors are quiet. We
reach an elevator, and it takes us up to the deck in seconds, and
I’m surprised that it’s already night-time. I lost track of time on
my missions, because we never know if we will land in the night or
day.

It’s a clear night, and the moon is hanging
overhead like a great silver eye. The stars are bright out here, so
far from civilization. The little kiosks lined up beside the
cannons are closed, but I can smell food cooking nearby.
Barbeque.

We enter the operator only area and come face
to face with a crowd. Every named operator is here, even the ones
who shouldn’t be. Three are in wheelchairs, and
Zoo Prank
appears to be breathing through an artificial lung. Every member of
the crowd is sporting some injury or other, from limb casts to
large patches of smooth new skin on hands and faces.
Past
Prime
is here, already walking on a new metal leg.
Free
Man
also survived, although he now sports an eye patch.

This is a battered crew if ever there was
one, but at least we are still alive.

There are some new faces, including
Silver
Shadows
. I bet
The General
wouldn’t be pleased to find
him here.

“
Dark Fire
is missing,” hisses Tenchi,
and I realize he’s right.

Two operators grab my arms and hold me in
place. Two more try the same thing on Tenchi, but he twists in
their grip and knocks one out with his elbow. He turns towards the
operators holding me and raises an eyebrow. They’ve already seen
Tenchi in action, so they get nervous and let me go.

“Let them stand as they like,”
Small
Talk
yells from the crowd.

The operators release us and somebody
laughs.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

Blue fireworks burst into the sky and
Dark
Fire
descends from the night in a cape of flames. He lands on
the deck with a thud and all the operators fall silent. The flames
covering his body splutter and die as he opens his visor. The deck
is silent, waiting for him to speak.

“My friends,” he says quietly, “we have
gathered together to promote two of our trainees to full operators.
Both have proven themselves more than worthy to join us. Step
forward,
Grey Three
and
Red Five
.”

We step forward.
One Trick
uses a pair
of scissors to cut our shirts off, leaving us bare-chested. We
don’t stop her.

“
Grey Three
, you are one of the most
talented superheroes we have had on the team. You are also the only
superhero I’ve ever met who is so scared of flying.”

That gets a round of laughter, but
Dark
Fire
cuts it off.

“You came to us because you kept saying that
little voices on the radio were telling you what to do. We cannot
find any evidence for these voices, yet they still seem to be
giving you good advice. We have taken people for stranger reasons,
but not often.”

He points a finger at Tenchi’s chest and a
spark leaps out and burns him. Tenchi doesn’t flinch, but I bet it
hurt like saucers.

“Welcome to the crew,
Little
Voices
!”

The assorted superheroes burst into applause
and somebody hands Tenchi a red shirt. He joins their ranks,
leaving me alone.
Dark Fire
looks at me and shakes his
head.

“
Red Five
,
Red Five
. You have
some strange attraction to danger, don’t you? Your mother asked me
to make sure you never became a superhero, and I did try. We did
everything we could to stop you, but you refused to take no for an
answer.”