Sakkara

Colin lifted the old man out and – gripping on to his hands – leaned out of the window and lowered him down as far as he could go.

“Do it!” Renata shouted. “I’m ready!”

Colin let go, but the old man twisted somehow at the last second, swung away. Renata made a grab for him…And missed.

There was a gasp of shock from the crowd when he hit the ground. The man’s left leg was bent at an unnatural angle. Renata crouched beside him, but he waved her away. “No, help the others!”

A young woman was next. Renata caught her easily, helped by the teenage boy.

Colin looked around. “Who’s next?”

“Me,” Dave said. “I’m the last one.” He was already climbing on to the ledge. “Kid Titan, isn’t it?” He smiled. “We’ve been watching you on the news…Just this week we must have had thirty people coming in looking for action figures of you and Diamond!”

Before Colin could respond, there was a loud creak from the roof above them. He lashed out, pushing Dave out of the window just as the rest of the roof collapsed on top of him. At the same time, the floor gave way.

Colin coughed and blinked rapidly. Blacked out for a second. He was flat on the floor, face down, covered in burning toys and ceiling tiles. He could feel a heavy steel girder across the back of his legs.

Then he heard Renata rushing into the store. She pulled the girder off him, threw it to one side, then lifted him to his feet. “You all right?”

Colin groaned. “I’m never shopping here again. How’s Dave?”

“The assistant? He’s OK. I caught him.” Renata suddenly jumped. “Your arm’s on fire!”

Colin slapped the flames out, then looked down at his costume. It was covered in burns and rips, and his cape was in shreds. “My mother’s going to kill me!”

“Come on, let’s get out of here before the rest of the place caves in.”

“Wait! Is my mask on straight?”

“It’s fine.”

They made their way out of the shop and into a sudden flurry of camera flashes. The crowd was cheering wildly, shouting “Kid Titan! Kid Titan!” over and over. A few – mostly teenage boys – were trying to drown the others out by shouting, “Di-a-mond! Di-a-mond!”

“My fan club is here,” Renata said.

“What, both of them?” Colin said, his white grin spreading across his soot-blackened face.

A TV reporter rushed up. Without asking their permission, he pushed his way between them, turned to face the camera and began speaking. “Barney Macintosh here with the new heroes known as Diamond and Kid Titan, at the scene of a daring rescue. Diamond, if I can turn to you first…What were your thoughts as you selflessly entered the burning building?” He pushed his microphone up to her face.

Renata said, “No comment,” then turned and walked away.

“Er…Kid Titan! Do you have anything you’d like to say?”

Colin nodded. “Yeah. My name is Titan, not Kid Titan!” He turned his back on the reporter and followed Renata.

As they were making their way across the rooftops, to the alley where they’d stored their civilian clothes, Renata said, “We did good tonight.”

“We shouldn’t have let that reporter talk to us. The camera was pretty close.”

“Col, you’re wearing a mask and your face is covered in soot. No one would be able to recognise us.” Renata paused. “Sorry about what happened on the stairway. The heat was just too much for me.”

“That’s OK. Sorry about using your head as a battering ram,” Colin said as he used the end of his cape to wipe his face.

She laughed. “Danny’s going to love that one!” They approached the edge of the roof. “Where are we now, exactly?”

“Bishop Street.” It was an easy jump to the building on the other side of the alley, not much more than the length of large car. Colin stepped back, took a short run and cleared the gap.

Renata landed next to him.

“So you think Danny’s ever going to get his powers back?” Colin asked.

“How would I know?”

“Well, you’ve been a superhuman for longer than we have. Besides,” he added cautiously, “you and him have been spending a lot of time together.”

“Yeah, well…He needs us around. It’s not easy for him. I don’t mean about his powers or his arm. All that stuff with his dad.”

“You mean his real dad or Façade?”

“Façade. I don’t think he should have told Danny’s mother the truth.”

“Renata, he wasn’t legally married to her! He pretended to be her husband for years!”

“If he hadn’t told her, she’d never have thrown him out of the flat.”

“Can you blame her? No relationship can survive that sort of lie! What if you were her, and you found out that for eleven years you’d been living with a former supervillain who…” Colin paused, listening.

“What is it?”

“A scream, somewhere behind us. Come on!”

They turned and ran back the way they came, racing across the flat rooftops, jumping across the alleyways and narrow streets.

“There!” Colin said in a loud whisper. He pointed down into a dark alley, six storeys below. “Four men, mugging a young couple. Think you can jump down there?”

Renata didn’t bother to answer: she just threw herself off the edge.

Colin watched as her skin suddenly glistened and turned transparent. There was a crash as she hit the ground. He saw the four large men spin to face her, one of them holding a knife.

Colin stepped back, took a deep breath and ran. He launched himself across the alleyway and landed on the metal fire escape three floors below, then vaulted over the edge and dropped to the ground next to Renata just as the knife-wielding man charged.

Renata lashed out with a side kick, knocking the knife from the man’s hand.

There was a moment’s pause, then Renata yelled at the muggers’ victims: “Get out of here! Phone the police!”

The man grabbed the woman’s arm. “C’mon, Jackie! Let’s go!”

“No, but…”

“Come on!”

The couple rushed past Colin and Renata, and stopped when they reached the street. “Great,” Colin muttered. “They’re hanging around to watch.”

“Forget about them,” Renata said. “Let’s just sort these guys out.”

One of the men – large, muscled, bald – advanced on them. “What’s this? It’s a little late for Halloween, kids. Turn around and go home.”

“No,” Renata said. “We’re taking you in. Citizen’s arrest.”

The men laughed. The one nearest Renata – a short, stocky man in his early twenties – reached out to grab hold of her arm.

Renata spun about, knocking his hand aside.

“Damn, that hurt!”

There was a brief pause, then the stocky man shouted, “Get ’em!”

Something crashed into Colin’s back, almost knocking him off balance. The bearded man had rushed him from behind and locked his arms around his chest. The one with the shaved head swung his fist at Colin’s face. There was a loud crack and the man gasped.

“Oh God! My hand!” He collapsed to his knees.

Colin had felt the force of the punch, but no pain. He grabbed hold of the bearded man’s arms, quickly ducked down and flipped the man over his shoulder, slamming him heavily to the ground.

Colin looked around to see that Renata was holding the fourth man by the throat. On the ground next to her, the stocky man was groaning and clutching his stomach.

“Are you going to play nice?” Renata asked.

“Please don’t hurt me! I’ll do anything you want!”

“Good.” She opened her hand and he dropped to the ground. “Stay put and keep quiet!”

“What exactly are you trying to do?” Colin asked the bearded man, who was now repeatedly punching him in the face. He grabbed hold of the man’s fist and twisted his arm around, forcing him down.

The stocky man suddenly scrambled to his feet and made a run for it. “I’ll get him!” Renata yelled as she chased after him.

Colin let go of the man’s hand and stepped back, pleased with himself. Not a bad night’s work, he said to himself. Now comes the tricky part. He’d have to keep these men here until the police arrived, then get away before they could ask too many questions.

He looked around to see that the young couple were still at the entrance to the alley, peering in. The woman was using her mobile phone. “Yes! Four of them! And these two kids flew down out of the sky and just beat the hell out of them! No, I am not making this up!”

There was a groan from the ground beside Colin. He turned to see the bald mugger slowly getting to his feet.

“Stay down if you know what’s good for you,” Colin said. He put his foot on the man’s neck and applied a little weight.

The man coughed into the dirt. “Who…who are you?”

“Who am I?” Colin replied. He had been waiting for this moment. “I’m the one the bogeyman is afraid of. I’m the new face of justice. I’m your worst nightmare.”

He crouched down, leaning closer to the man. “You’d better warn the rest of your low-life friends that there’s a new hero in town. You and your kind won’t be tolerated any longer.”

Colin stood up and folded his arms. He wished there was a breeze that would make his cape flap about a little. “Who am I? I’m Titan.”

And that was when one of the other muggers hit Colin across the back of his head with a plank of wood.

Colin felt someone slapping his face and he shook himself awake. “What? What happened?”

Renata pulled him up into a sitting position. “Looks like your powers took the wrong moment to desert you. You OK?”

He reached up and gingerly touched the back of his head. “Ow! What hit me?”

“I don’t know. I lost the other guy, and when I got back the rest of them were gone.”

Colin turned towards the entrance to the alley. “What happened to the onlookers?”

“They’re gone, too. Think you can stand?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.” He jumped to his feet, picked up the plank and crushed it in his hands. “See? Powers back and everything. Now let’s go and hunt those guys down.”

Renata put her hand on his arm. “No. We’re going to call it a night. Get you back home.”

“Why?”

“Check your face.”

He frowned. “I’m not bleeding, am I?”

“Colin…your mask is gone.”

2

“FINALLY! THE LAST ONE!” Danny Cooper took the dripping dinner plate from the washing-up rack and placed it on a tea towel that he’d spread out on the kitchen counter. He used a second tea towel to carefully dry the top of the plate, then put down the tea towel, turned over the plate, picked up the tea towel again and dried the plate’s underside. Then, one by one, he put the small stack of plates into the rack above the sink.

He glanced at the clock. Washing and drying the dishes had taken him forty-three minutes, a new personal record. Before he’d lost his right arm, he could do it in ten minutes.

He sat down at the table and resumed flicking through his magazine, just as his mother pushed open the kitchen door and slammed it behind her. Danny instantly knew what had happened: Niall had blabbed.

He didn’t look up, but he could sense his mother glaring at him.

“I cannot believe,” she began, “that you were planning to deliberately go behind my back and bring your brother to see that man!”

Danny simply said, “I didn’t think you’d find out.”

“That’s the best you can do?”

Danny finally looked up from the magazine. “Sorry.”

“Sorry you were going to do it or sorry I found out?”

“Sorry you found out.” He pushed the magazine aside and stood up. “What did the little squirt say?”

She glared at him, arms folded, a grim look on her face. “He did his best not to tell me. And don’t call him that!”

“Façade is his father,” Danny said. “Despite what he did, he’s still Niall’s father.”

“That man…” Mrs Cooper swallowed. “He…”

“I know. He lied to all of us. But he thought he was doing the right thing.”

“How dare you defend him!”

“I’m not defending him, Mum. I’m as mad at him as you are. I don’t know if I’ll ever forgive him. But…” Danny’s shoulders sagged. “If he hadn’t agreed to take my real dad’s place, then Max Dalton would have used what he thought was his only other option.”

Fourteen years ago when Danny was born, his real father – the superhero known as Quantum – had had a vision of the future in which Danny was responsible for a huge, devastating war between the humans and the superhumans. Max Dalton had concluded that the only way to avoid that war was to either kill Danny as a baby or strip all the superhumans of their powers.

Max had persuaded the shape-shifting villain Façade to masquerade as Quantum, while the real Quantum worked with Ragnarök to create the power-stripping machine. The machine had worked: for ten years there had been no superhumans. Then, a couple of months ago, both Danny and his friend Colin Wagner had discovered that they were the offspring of some of the most powerful superhumans of all: Colin’s parents were Titan and Energy.

Mrs Cooper filled the kettle and turned it on. Without looking at Danny, she said, “I don’t want you to see him again.”

“But…”

“No! I mean it, Danny! That man ruined our lives! And you’re grounded for a month.”

Danny muttered, “It’s not like I ever go anywhere anyway.”

“And when I say grounded, that means you can’t have your friends over either. Do I make myself clear?”

“Perfectly,” Danny replied. “But just listen to me for a second, OK?”

“Why? Why should I listen to you when I know you’re only going to lie to me anyway? God knows we’ve had enough lies in this house!” She glared at him again. “All right then. Go ahead. As if there was anything you could say that might make a difference.”

Danny hesitated for a second, then decided to plunge ahead. “He’s in love with you.”

“What?”

“Dad. I mean Façade. He phoned yesterday when you were out. He told me that he loved you from the moment he first met you. That was one of the reasons he agreed to take my real dad’s place. He says that he has always loved you and he always will.”

Mrs Cooper said nothing.

Danny chose his next words carefully. “Did you ever notice anything? Any clue that Façade had taken your husband’s place?”

His mother glanced towards the spot on the wall where, until recently, there had been a family photo. “He…He was always a little unstable. Your real father, I mean. I thought that was because he knew that at any moment he might have to run off and save someone. But after Façade took over, he seemed to have calmed down a lot. Then that thing with Ragnarök happened and for the first time he seemed to be genuinely happy. Sometimes I wish he hadn’t told me.” She gave her son a weak smile. “But if I’m going to wish for things, I should be wishing that you hadn’t lost your arm.”

Danny glanced down at the stump of his right arm. His shirt sleeve was folded over and pinned up.

“You’re going to have to go back to school soon.”

“I know. But there’s only another couple of days before Christmas. I’ll go back with the others in January.”

Mrs Cooper walked over to the table and picked up the magazine Danny had been reading. “You did the Sudoku puzzle.” The little squares had been filled in with Danny’s shaky left-handed writing. “And the crossword.”

Danny flexed his left hand. “It’s still hard to write, but I’m getting better. I keep reaching for the pen with the wrong arm.”

“And you always had such lovely handwriting!” She looked as though she was about to cry.

The kitchen door opened and Niall walked in. “Colin’s on the telly,” he said.

“What? Our Colin?” Danny asked. “Colin Wagner?”

“Yeah. And he’s dressed up as Kid Titan, too.”

Danny and his mother exchanged a glance. “Must be someone else, Niall,” Danny said.

“See for yourself then if you don’t believe me!” Niall said.

They followed Niall back to the sitting-room.

“See?” Niall said, pointing at the screen. Two newsreaders – a man and a woman – sat behind their desk. On the screen behind them was a photo of Diamond and Titan. Niall turned up the volume.

“…when a blaze broke out at the store less than an hour ago,” the man was saying. “Though the cause of the fire itself is still unknown, there are some fears that it might have been started deliberately. But the most remarkable aspect of this story is the rescue of five people – one member of staff and four customers – who had been trapped on the upper floor.” The screen cut to a shaky, grainy image of Renata and Colin running into the building. The words ‘Amateur film’ appeared in the corner of the screen. The newsreader continued: “The teenage superhumans known as Kid Titan and Diamond – seen here entering the building – braved the intense heat and managed to get the trapped shoppers to safety by knocking out a window and dropping them…”

Danny pulled the remote control from Niall’s hands and hit the mute button.

“Told you,” Niall said. “That’s Colin.”

“Rubbish!”

“It is!” Niall insisted. “And Diamond must be his girlfriend Renata.”

“Renata is not Colin’s girlfriend!” Danny said.

“Well, she lives in his house and she’s always hanging around with him.”

“Sweetheart, Renata is Colin’s cousin from America,” Mrs Cooper said, lowering herself into her armchair.

Niall gave her a look that made it clear he didn’t believe that. “Even so. That doesn’t mean they’re not Diamond and Kid Titan.”

The screen changed again, this time showing Kid Titan and Diamond leaving the building and being ambushed by the reporter. This film was a lot clearer than the previous one, but luckily the two heroes were both covered in so much soot that it wasn’t any easier to recognise them.

“See?” Danny said. “He’s nothing like Colin!” He waited until Colin and Renata had left, then turned the sound back up.

“So there you have it,” the reporter said, trying to hide his embarrassment. “Two brave young heroes, risking their life to save others. They’re clearly not seeking publicity or fame, but it seems that their selfless actions will bring them fame regardless. This is Barney Macintosh, reporting for Channel 6 News.”

The screen switched to show the newsreaders in the studio. The woman said, “That report from Barney Macintosh. Prior to this evening, only a handful of blurred images of these new heroes had emerged, leaving many people to believe that they were nothing more than a hoax, but as our exclusive footage has just shown, no one can now doubt the existence of Diamond and Kid Titan.”

The male newsreader chuckled. “Don’t you mean Titan, Diana?”

She returned his chuckle. “That’s right. He doesn’t seem to like being called a kid. Well, I think his actions today have proved that though Titan might be young, in some ways he’s very definitely a grown-up!”

Watching this, Danny didn’t know whether to be happy for Colin or jealous. If I hadn’t lost my powers…I could have been there with them. In fact, I would have been so fast that by the time Renata and Colin arrived at the scene I could have rescued everyone and put the fire out all by myself.

He looked again at where his right arm used to be. In the past few days, Danny had taken to wondering whether losing his arm was worse than losing his powers. I was only a superhuman for a couple of days, he thought, and my speed wasn’t even reliable, but…

Then there was the vision. He hadn’t told anyone about it. Not Façade, not Renata, not even Colin.

He had seen a vision of himself – not that much older than he was now – leading an army that could destroy the world. They were running from…someone. The vision had been too vague for him to make out many details. But one thing was certain: in that vision, Danny’s future self had a mechanical right arm.

Danny’s mother said, “Oh, not him again.”

Danny looked back at the television set. On screen, standing at a podium in front of an American flag, was a tall, overweight, bearded man. The caption below the screen read ‘Trutopians’ new leader Reginald Kinsella’.

Kinsella was responding to a question. “No, the Trutopian movement has always been dedicated to the better qualities of humanity and always will be. We have no political agenda. Not in the way that you mean. That is not going to change under my leadership. If you’ve read our press releases you’ll already know this. We accept all races, all creeds. All we ask is that anyone wishing to join our society should be willing to obey our rules. Yes, we do strictly enforce those rules, but there’s nothing outlandish. They are simply a set of codes by which most decent, law-abiding people already live.”

Another man raised his hand. “Mr Kinsella, what about the reports that your followers are—”

Kinsella interrupted him. “My followers? The people who’ve joined our movement are not following me, Mr Lincoln. They’re following the Trutopian principles.” He counted off on his fingers. “One: do no harm. Two: help the less fortunate. Three: pay your taxes and pay your bills. Then you will be taken care of.”

“But what about people who can’t pay their taxes, Mr Kinsella? Suppose someone joins the Trutopians, moves to one of your gated communities and then loses his job? What then?”

“Then we will give that person work until he can find a job that suits him. You know the statistics: over twelve per cent of our people work in security. We have the safest communities in the world. There has yet to be a single crime committed by a member of the Trutopian movement. We have no crime, no poverty, no bigotry.”

Another hand was raised. “So what’s the point of having the largest private police force in the world if you don’t have any crime?”

Kinsella took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly. “We don’t have any crime because we have the largest private police force in the world.”

The same man asked, “So is that why you want to recruit the new heroes? You want them to work for you?”

“I want them to work with us, not for us. That’s the purpose of this session. No one knows how to get in touch with them, so I’m making a public appeal.” Kinsella turned towards the camera. “Diamond, Kid Titan…If you’re watching this, I’m asking you to get in touch with your nearest Trutopian community. Join us and we will provide you with all the assistance you will ever need. We will house your families, provide them with good jobs and unparalleled education. The Trutopian goal is in the name: Truth and Utopia. We are aiming to make this world a better place – for everyone. Join us. Save the world.”

With that, Kinsella stepped back from his podium.

Danny looked at his mother. She was looking back at him. “No way,” Danny said. “I know what you’re thinking.”

“It sounds…”

“It sounds too good to be true. That usually means that it’s not true. Besides…I can’t do anything any more.”

“They might still be interested. It could be worth phoning them. Just to see.”

“What are you talking about?” Niall asked, looking from one to the other.

Before Danny could reply, the television once again cut back to the newsreaders in the studio. “Breaking news just in,” the male newsreader said, clearly excited, “another Channel 6 exclusive! It seems that following this evening’s rescue of five people from a burning toy store, new heroes Diamond and Kid Titan saved a young couple from four men attempting to mug them. Apparently, the heroes managed to scare off the muggers, but not before Kid Titan was knocked unconscious.”

Danny suddenly sat up straight.

The newsreader continued: “One of the muggers’ intended victims – part-time nurse Jacqueline Caldwell – used her mobile phone’s built-in camera to take this photograph of Kid Titan.”

The screen showed a grainy, low-resolution photo of Colin, unconscious and unmasked, lying on the ground.