Читать книгу The Quantum Prophecy - Michael Carroll, Michael Carroll - Страница 5

RENATA SOLIZ STOOD in the centre of the empty field, directly in the path of the approaching figure.

She had her long black hair tied back and was wearing grey jeans and a plain red T-shirt. The only thing that marked her out as anything other than a normal girl was a pair of thick leather gloves and the black Zorro mask she’d “borrowed” from her little brother.

The midday sun broke through the clouds and illuminated the tall man making his way towards her.

Renata stood her ground, watching him approach.

Though Dioxin was still twenty metres away, there was a stench of death about him: a putrid, damp, fungal smell that reminded Renata of the rotting timbers in the basement of her grandmother’s house. He sneered at her as he stomped forward over the rough ground, his grin spreading across the blotched yellow and red skin of his face like an opening wound. “Haven’t you got the sense to run away, little girl?”

He continued walking towards her, the grass dying where his bare feet touched it.

Renata watched him carefully. She knew all about Dioxin, knew what he could do. His skin oozed a thick, clear, acid-like venom and if his touch didn’t scorch the flesh from your bones, it infected you with a deadly poison.

Dioxin stopped a couple of metres away. “Seriously. Run away.”

Energy had told Renata that of all the villains she had faced, the one who scared her most was Dioxin. Ragnarök was incredibly intelligent, strong and fast; Brawn was four metres tall and capable of knocking a moving train clear off its tracks; Slaughter was a ruthless killing machine; but they were nothing compared to Dioxin.

“So what do they call you?” Dioxin sneered.

“Diamond.”

Dioxin looked her up and down. “What’s the deal here, kid? Don’t tell me that you’re one of Titan’s crew! You’re what, fifteen?”

“Fourteen.”

“Fourteen. And you think you can stop me?”

With that, Dioxin lunged towards her, his poisonous arms outstretched.

Paragon quickly checked the information that was projected on to the inside of his visor. Flight power was down to less than forty per cent.

A plasma bolt hit him in the left shoulder, burning a hole into his armour. He dodged to the right, quickly unclipped the still-burning shoulder pad and let it fall to the ground. A deep red welt appeared on his dark skin. One of the few active superheroes who didn’t have any superhuman abilities, Paragon relied on his armour and weapons as much as his natural intelligence and athletic abilities, but there were times when even these weren’t enough.

Paragon was sweating – and it wasn’t just from the weight of his armour, or the heat of the plasma bolts.

This was a bad situation.

There had been no sign of Ragnarök for months and now this: a hundred-metre-long mobile fortress, rumbling its way across Pennsylvania towards the city of New York. The tank stopped for nothing; cars, trees and even houses were crushed beneath its giant wheels. Unable to halt or even slow the machine’s progress, the police and army had concentrated on evacuating people from its path.

Another volley of plasma bolts streaked towards him and Paragon cut the power to his jetpack and dropped, angling his descent so that he was falling directly into the path of the enormous battle-tank.

He reactivated his jetpack ten metres above the ground and found himself face-to-face with Ragnarök, protected by the battle-tank’s metre-thick windshield.

They stared at each other for a split second, then Ragnarök frantically gestured to one of his henchmen, mouthing the words “Kill him!”

The armoured hero dodged to his left just as a huge column of white flame scorched the air around him.

He swooped down towards the battle-tank’s undercarriage, settled long enough to attach the explosive charge, and then zoomed away, dodging a storm of bullets and plasma bolts.

Paragon glanced around. He could see Energy floating above the battle-tank, using her powers to deflect the tank’s fire away from the others. Paragon activated the communicator built into his helmet. “Everyone! Pull back! Three seconds!”

There was a flurry of activity as the assembled superheroes darted to a safe distance, then—

The sound of the explosion was almost unnoticeable over the roar of the tank’s massive engines, but everyone felt it; the ground trembled, the blast rattling windows for ten kilometres in every direction.

Paragon peered through the huge column of smoke and dust. He activated his visor’s infrared filters and … Yes! The tank was burning!

“All right, people!” Paragon said. “Maybe the big guy isn’t with us, but it looks like we’ve just had our first break. Max?”

Max Dalton’s voice said, “I’m here, Paragon.”

“Get inside the thing. See if you can lock on to someone.”

“I’m on it.”

“Energy, follow him. You might need to shield him against weapons-fire.”

“Will do,” Energy said.

“Quantum?”

Silence.

Paragon paused. “All right. We’ll have to do it without him. Anyone know how Diamond is holding up?”

Dioxin raged. He ranted. This is impossible!

He’d reached out to infect her and the girl – Diamond – had simply locked her hands around his wrist and changed.

It had taken less than a second; she had shimmered, glistened and become solid, unmoving and transparent. Even her hair and clothes had changed. It was as though she’d been replaced with a statue carved out of solid diamond.

Dioxin couldn’t shake her off. She wasn’t moving. He didn’t think that she could move in this form. All she was doing was holding on to his wrist, still staring at him with that determined look on her face.

A voice called out, “Dioxin!”

He turned to see an annoyingly familiar figure behind him.

Dioxin sighed. “Dalton.”

Joshua Dalton smiled. “You can let go now, Diamond.”

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.”