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As Dioxin watched, the girl instantly turned back to normal. She let go of his wrist, jumped backwards and ripped the leather gloves from her hands. She tossed the gloves aside. Even before they hit the ground they were a smouldering ruin.
“See, the trouble with your power, Dioxin, is that you can’t even lift weights to build up some muscle, can you?” Joshua Dalton said. “No, you’d just burn through the bars. Now me, on the other hand… Well, I’m not that strong either, certainly not compared to Titan. But a psychokinetic doesn’t need to be strong.”
Dioxin felt a sickening lurch in the pit of his stomach, then looked down to see that he was floating a metre above the ground, unable to do anything but wait to be arrested.
High above the battle-tank, Energy concentrated on drawing the enemy fire towards her. Tiny flashes of blue and orange lightning crackled around her body and through her short auburn hair. Her eyes – normally a pale grey – were now almost solid white.
She knew that she could absorb a huge amount of power, but there was a limit. Pretty soon now she’d have to discharge that power.
A voice crackled over her communicator. “Energy? I’m on the way!”
“Titan! Thank God! Where are you?”
“Just crossing the east coast. I’ll be there in a minute,” Titan replied.
“Make it quicker! We’re not doing well here. I’m trying to pull in all their plasma bolts, but it hurts. I’ve never seen so much fire-power!”
“I see you!”
Energy looked to the east and Titan was suddenly hovering in front of her, his dark blue cape billowing in the light breeze. “Don’t just float there! Do something!” she told him.
“Yes, ma’am!”
Titan gave her a quick smile then darted down to the battle-tank.
Shots blasted into him, missiles exploding to his left and right. It was as though the battle-tank had been designed with the sole purpose of hurting him – and it was doing a pretty good job.
Titan was strong and fast, but he wasn’t invulnerable. When he was hit, he felt it. And he was being hit a lot right now. Soon his chest was a mass of bruises and his costume – bright blue tunic and leggings, darker blue cap, gloves and boots – started to get more holes than a fishing net. Much more of this and he’d be flying around in his underpants.
Through the tank’s metre-thick windscreen, Titan could see Ragnarök at the controls, ordering his men about. The madman had a determined look on his face. That wasn’t unusual for someone like him; they all believed in what they were doing.
Where the hell is Quantum? he wondered. He should be here by now! He’d be able to phase himself inside the tank! And what about Max? Why hasn’t he been able to reach someone on the inside of it? Could Ragnarök have found a way to shield the tank from Max’s mind control?
Titan looked again at Ragnarök. The villain was looking determined, but not concerned.
There’s something else happening here. What is Ragnarök planning?
For the first time in years, Titan was genuinely worried.
Diamond stood on a low hill, some way from the main battle. Ahead, she could see Ragnarök’s battle-tank as it rumbled onwards.
The tank had left a channel of destruction as far as she could see.
“It’s huge,” Diamond said. “Energy said it was big, but I didn’t think… Josh, how can we possibly stop something like this?”
He hesitated. “I don’t know. Look, Diamond… You shouldn’t have to face this. Not yet. I’m going to leave you here. Somewhere safe. OK?”
“No! Not OK! You can’t just leave me out of it!”
“This is your first battle.”
Diamond stared into Joshua Dalton’s eyes. “I can take care of myself! I’m invulnerable! And I’m strong! A lot stronger than you are!”
“Physically, yes.” He glanced past her, to the battle that was raging. “Emotionally, you’re not ready. You stay put, Diamond. That’s an order. Got that?”
She nodded.
“Good.” Joshua Dalton leaned forward and kissed her gently on the forehead. “Wish me luck.”
Max Dalton’s power, like his younger brother Joshua and sister Roz, was mental rather than physical; he could temporarily take over the minds of anyone within a twelve-metre radius.
Max and his siblings were always easy to spot, even on this crowded battlefield; the members of The High Command were the only superheroes who didn’t wear masks. All they wore were matching black Kevlar uniforms.
Now, as he ran across the battleground towards Paragon, he was glad of the fact that his costume was bullet proof.
Max helped Paragon to his feet. “You OK?”
The armoured hero coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood. “I will be. Thanks. How are we doing?”
“Not good,” Max replied. “Titan can’t get close enough to the tank to do any damage. I’ve no idea where Quantum is. Impervia and Brawn are locked in a stalemate. Apex is down; The Glyph got him. The others… I’m losing track of them.” Half an hour earlier, Max had seen the five members of Portugal’s Podermeninas team battling dozens of Ragnarök’s henchmen. Since then, there had been no sign of them.
“Max, I don’t mind telling you… I’m scared,” Paragon said. “I don’t think we’re all going to make it. If we can’t stop that machine…”
“We will stop it.”
“How? We’ve thrown everything we have at it and it’s still going.”
Max Dalton bit his lip. “I know. Listen, I passed something on the way back to you. It’s… I think it was Thalamus. I think he’s de—”
Max spun away, his hand clutching his neck. Blood dripped between his fingers.
Paragon grabbed Max’s free arm and dragged him to the relative safety of a fallen tree.
“Let me see it,” Paragon said. He pulled Max’s blood-covered hand away and inspected the wound. “You’ll be fine – I’ve had worse shaving cuts.”
He removed a large bandage from his med-pack and pressed it against the wound. “This’ll help for the time being and we can get it looked at properly when this is all over.”
“Thanks.” Max grabbed Paragon’s shoulder and hauled himself to his feet.
Paragon said, “What we need right now is a miracle.” He paused. “Or, to be more accurate, we need—Quantum!”
“Exactly.”
“No, I mean… he’s here!”
Max Dalton and Paragon ran towards the battle-tank. Quantum, the fastest superhuman of them all, could not be seen, but there was no doubt that he was there. Ragnarök’s henchmen were being knocked about by some invisible force, their weapons ripped from their hands, their armour torn off.
“Quantum, where the hell were you?” Paragon shouted as they neared the tank.
The white-clad superhero suddenly appeared in front of him, slightly out of breath. “I… I don’t know. Something happened to me. How badly are we doing?”
Max said, “We have some dead and a few missing. We thought you were one of them. Look, we need Impervia to help Titan, so you’ve got to take on Brawn. You feel up to it?”
“Sure. Yeah. I can slow him down at least.”
Paragon shook his head. “No, wait. Quantum, use that intangibility trick of yours; get inside the tank and see what damage you can do. At the very least, try and take out Ragnarök.”
“OK,” Quantum said, nodding. “I’ll—” He shuddered. “Something’s wrong.” He looked down at his gloved hands. They were shaking. “I… I don’t seem to be able to move.”
Paragon exchanged a quick glance with Max. “What is it?” Paragon asked.
“I… Wait! There’s a sense of… There’s a machine, it’s dangerous to us. Ragnarök’s been used…” Quantum blinked rapidly, swaying back and forth. “Paragon? You’re older.”
Quantum’s knees buckled and he collapsed.
Paragon reached out and caught him. Paragon turned to Max, who was staring at Quantum. “Don’t just stand there, Max! I’ll look after Quantum. You get to Brawn – maybe you can control him.”
Max hesitated. “No, it’s never worked on him before.”
“Damn it, Max! You have to try!”
Paragon watched Max go, then looked down at Quantum. “You still conscious?”
Quantum’s eyes rolled back. “Paragon…” His voice was weak, barely a whisper.
“I’m here.”
“When the boy comes to you, you have to believe him. You won’t want to, but you must.”
“What boy? What are you talking about?”
Quantum smiled. “He will be strong. That’s how you’ll know.”
He reached out and grabbed Paragon’s hand. “You’ve been a good friend.” Then, in a stronger voice, he added, “Next, we lose. We all lose. Paragon, don’t tell the others. Promise me.”
“I promise,” Paragon said. “I won’t say a word. But I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You will, Paragon. Not for a long time, but you will.”
1 (#ulink_1a79e219-09d3-5636-af25-aa76403b761c)
IT WAS A Thursday in October, early afternoon. Normally at this time, Colin Wagner would be hiding behind the boy sitting in front of him, because Thursday afternoons were what his teacher liked to call “Discussion Time”. This was when Mr Stone would pick a topic he found interesting and do his very best to make sure that none of the students would ever find it interesting again.
The previous week, Mr Stone had shown them a five-minute video about how birds build their nests and then proceeded to lead the class in a discussion about birds, nests and why he believed that starlings were more evil than magpies. But today, for a change, Mr Stone had picked an interesting topic.
Today they were talking about Mystery Day.
Mr Stone waited until everyone had settled down. “So… tomorrow it’s Mystery Day,” he began. “Exactly ten years since the disappearance of all the superheroes. When this all started, nine years ago on the first anniversary, it was supposed to be a day of remembrance. But somehow over the years it’s turned into a bloody holiday! Instead of the heroes being honoured for giving up their lives, we get balloons and parties, and people setting up stalls at the side of the road to sell knock-off Titan action figures and T-shirts. And if you think it’s bad here, it’s ten times worse in America!”
He picked up his chalk and began to write on the blackboard.
Titan, he wrote, and underlined it twice. Podermeninas, he wrote next, but he only underlined that once. He followed that with a series of other names: Paragon, Apex, Impervia, Thalamus, Thunder, Inferno, Energy, Quantum and Zephyr.
Then he picked up his red chalk and wrote Ragnarök. Underneath that he wrote Rayboy, The Glyph, Terrain, The Shark, Slaughter, Dioxin and Brawn.
“Right…” Mr Stone turned around to face the classroom. “Superheroes,” he said, pointing to the words written in white. “And supervillains.” He tapped at the words in red. “Who were they? Where did they come from? Where did they get their powers?”
“Nobody knows, Sir,” Colin said.
“Weren’t the powers inherited?” Brian McDonald suggested.
“That would certainly explain The High Command: Max, Josh and Roz Dalton,” Mr Stone said.
Malcolm O’Neill put up his hand. “I heard they all came from another planet.”
“Speculation,” Mr Stone said. “Pure speculation. Let’s just stick to the facts, shall we? Their capabilities – their powers and strengths. Titan, who could fly and had the strength of a hundred men. Energy, who had the ability to absorb and then release almost any kind of energy. It was said Quantum could move so fast he was able to out run a supersonic jet. But then ten years ago at least twenty-five superheroes and upwards of a hundred villains were involved in a battle just east of Pittsburgh. Ragnarök’s huge battle-tank caused massive destruction as it rumbled across the United States towards New York City. Three whole towns had to be evacuated. There are reports of a huge explosion and then… nothing. So what happened to the superheroes? Colin?”
“They disappeared, Sir,” Colin answered.
The teacher nodded. “Disappeared. Vanished. Where to? Danny?”
“Nobody knows,” Danny Cooper replied. “But it wasn’t just the heroes who disappeared. The villains did too. There weren’t any bodies found in the wreckage. It was probably all covered up by the government.”
“They went back to their home planet,” Malcolm O’Neill said.
Adam Gilmore laughed. “Give it a rest, Mal! They were probably just vaporised in the explosion!”
“They can’t have been,” Colin said. “Brawn or Impervia would have survived any explosion. Energy could have absorbed the blast. Quantum could have just out run it.”
“Right,” Danny Cooper said. “And Max Dalton and the rest of The High Command survived.”
“Yeah, but they weren’t there,” Adam said.
“Mr Gilmore raises an interesting point,” Mr Stone said. “Despite what some witness claim, the official word is that the Daltons were not present during the attack. As far as we know, they are the only superhumans to have survived Mystery Day. Every other superhuman – whether or not they were present during Ragnarök’s attack – has disappeared.” He shrugged. “Tonight Max Dalton will give his first interview in ten years. The first time he’s ever spoken in public since he retired.” The teacher walked around to the front of his desk and leaned back against it. “Anyone want to guess what he’s going to say?”
Brian turned around to look at Malcolm O’Neill. “Hey, Mal! Maybe he’s going to tell us that he’s going to take you back to your home planet!”
The class laughed. “Right, Brian…” Mr Stone said. “You’ve just won the right to set today’s homework for the rest of the class.”
“Seriously?”
“Why not?”
Brian glanced around the room. Every other boy was staring at him with the same expression, doing their best to send Brian the same telepathic message: make this easy on us or you’re a dead man!
Under his breath, Colin muttered, “No homework! No homework!”
The teacher said, “Mr McDonald?”
