Ben Braver and the Vortex of Doom Read online

  ‘I’ll get her back,’ Dexter said.

  ‘But not until I say so,’ Noah said, pointing at Dexter.

  ‘All right,’ he said.

  ‘I don’t think there’s any way around it,’ Noah said. ‘William wants to put on a show for the world. It’s why he picked Times Square.’

  ‘He wants a fight,’ I said.

  ‘Yup,’ Noah said. ‘Things are going to get crazy no matter what, so let’s be the ones who make it crazy – not them. That should catch him by surprise.’

  ‘How do we do that?’ Dexter asked.

  ‘William likes to talk,’ Noah continued. ‘So we’ll let him talk, and when I give the signal, Dexter and I will start with the fire and ice explosions, as big as we can make them, all over the place. The second that happens, Ben and Totes will make a beeline for Penny.’

  Nix was still dozing on the operating table. I was gonna have to go out there without him – not good.

  ‘Get Penny back to this ship,’ Noah said. ‘And then get back outside because William and his gang will still need to be stopped.’

  ‘And what’s the plan for that?’ Totes asked, concerned.

  ‘Fight till one side loses,’ Noah said.

  ‘Welp, it was nice knowin’ y’all,’ Totes said.

  ‘The goat’s right,’ Duncan said. ‘Remember that William and Delilah aren’t just powerful. They’re overpowered.’

  ‘But if we leave, they’ll tear up the city,’ Noah said. ‘So it’s kind of our only option.’

  William and Delilah weren’t like normal bosses in a video game. They were the nearly unbeatable ones in games that cheat. It was possible that we were walking out to our deaths, and the four of us knew it.

  Noah held his fist out again. Totes, Dexter and I bumped it one last time, and then we went out the door to meet William in the middle of Times Square.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  We swaggered out of the ship like gladiators before a battle. Noah and Dexter walked on either side of me while I rode on Totes. He normally hates giving rides, but he made an exception this time because we had the most important job – rescuing Penny.

  ‘My parents are gonna kill me when they see me on TV,’ Noah said.

  ‘Darla’s gonna die when she sees me,’ Dexter said.

  ‘Ah, thank you guys for coming!’ William said, looking genuinely delighted. ‘This place is so awesome, isn’t it? I LOVE it here. Look, there’s even a Disney shop! I’m gonna get a BB-8 toy right after this.’

  He would’ve been a pretty cool guy if he didn’t want to murder people.

  ‘Welcome to the beginning of a new future!’ he said, flexing his power.

  All around us, tiny vortexes opened up, not big enough to do anything but pop some lightbulbs and slide some empty cars around.

  ‘That’s the clip they’ll play over and over on TV,’ William said. He put his hands up like he was presenting a headline. ‘The Abandoned Children Take Control. Best. Rulers. Ever.’

  Dude was legit nuts.

  ‘All right!’ he said with a fist pump. ‘So where is the little guy?’

  ‘First, I want to know that Penny’s okay,’ I said.

  William looked over his shoulder. ‘She’s right there, unharmed, just like I promised.’

  ‘Are you okay?’ I shouted to my friend.

  Penny looked at me, like, ‘Are you serious right now? I’m being held prisoner in the middle of Times Square!’ Then she threw out the most sarcastic double thumbs-up I’ve ever seen.

  ‘See?’ William continued. ‘She’s fine. So can we trade players now or what?’

  ‘First, give us Penny,’ Noah demanded.

  That was good.

  If William handed Penny over first, then she wouldn’t need saving. Hopefully it was gonna be as easy as that.

  ‘Yeah, how about no?’ William scoffed. ‘That’s not how this works. First, you give us Donnie, and then we’ll give you Penny.’

  Out of nowhere, Dexter offered a suggestion.

  Noah couldn’t help but shoot Dexter a dirty look while I stared straight ahead, unflinching. Obviously we couldn’t trade at the same time because we didn’t have Donnie, but Dexter hadn’t put those puzzle pieces together yet.

  Dexter’s eyes slowly grew larger as his brain caught up to what his mouth said. ‘Never mind,’ he mumbled.

  ‘No, no, that’s good,’ William said, beckoning his goons to bring Penny over. ‘We’ll do it at the same time. Tell Donnie to come out of the ship, and let’s get this over with.’

  Nobody said a thing.

  Delilah, Vic and the giant gecko led Penny over to us but stopped just behind their leader.

  ‘Tell Donnie to come out and play!’ William said, stomping his foot like a baby.

  Dexter, Noah and I looked back and forth at one another, hoping some sort of magical solution would present itself.

  But it didn’t.

  We were stuck.

  And it was obvious.

  William huffed. ‘I mean, you brought him, right? He’s on the ship right now, isn’t he? You’re just stalling because you hate the idea of anybody getting hurt? That has to be what you’re doing, because it’d be very stupid if you were playing games with me.’

  I laughed nervously.

  William sighed, eyes closed and head back. ‘I swear to God, I’ll throw a car at you if you didn’t bring him.’

  Might as well fess up. ‘So, about that …’ I said. ‘We kind of don’t have Donnie.’

  William became stone-faced, his stare piercing my soul. ‘What do you mean you kind of don’t?’

  ‘Right, not “kind of,” but totally”, I said. ‘We totally don’t have him.’

  William ground his teeth as the lizard-man put himself directly behind Penny. Delilah’s fingertips buzzed with electricity. Vic took that as her cue to do something, too, so she floated a couple of centimetres off the ground.

  ‘Donnie bailed on us!’ I said.

  ‘You’re lying!’ William shouted. ‘You’re hiding him to protect him!’

  ‘No, for real!’ Dexter said. ‘We don’t know where he is!’

  William whipped his hands out like Dr. Strange, opening a vortex on the side of the street. The suction pulled a car off the ground and sent it sailing through the air straight for us.

  ‘He was serious about the car,’ Dexter said.

  It all happened so fast. There wasn’t time to do anything except put our hands up – like that was gonna protect us from getting crushed by a two-tonne car.

  Then, out of nowhere, the car changed course, smashing into the ground right in front of us. We stumbled back as metal crunched and sparks flew from the asphalt.

  It was hard to see what had happened through all the dust. Even William leaned in, trying to get a better look as the air cleared.

  ‘Uh,’ Dexter said. ‘Is that what I think it is?’

  Nobody answered.

  Everybody was kind of in shock.

  Well, everybody except for me.

  Because it was the second time that day that I’d seen a giant shark out of water.

  ‘Magnific!’ I shouted.

  ‘Ben Braver, look at you!’ Magnific said, still in shark form. ‘All grown up and saving the day with your friends. I feel like a proud father! Well done, Beanie Weenie!’

  ‘Why’s everybody calling you that?’ Noah said. ‘I feel like I’m missing something!’

  ‘How’d you find me?’ I asked Magnific. ‘But also – are you a flying shark?’

  Magnific laughed as he morphed back into his human form. ‘I heard your name on TV and saw that Times Square was being attacked. So I called in a favour.’

  William stepped out from behind the crushed car. ‘Congrats, you almost got enough people for a fair fight.’

  Magnific puffed out his chest. ‘Turn yourself in now, Abandoned Child, and maybe we’ll go easy on you.’

  ‘We?’ William scoffed, rolling his eyes, but as his head craned upwards, his
face grew pale and his jaw dropped slightly.

  Hovering above us were a dozen superheroes, all decked out in cool costumes and capes. The ones who couldn’t fly were being lowered to the street by the ones who could.

  If my life were a movie, this is where the music would’ve swelled with loud horns and huge drums. It was the epic-hero shot in real life.

  ‘No way,’ Dexter said.

  ‘Righteous,’ Totes whispered.

  Noah just smiled.

  Magnific winked at me. ‘Okay, so maybe I called in a few favours.’

  William and Delilah might’ve been overpowered, but now they were outnumbered.

  We all waited for someone to make the first move. Supervillains on one side – superheroes on the other. It was the calm before the storm.

  And then Matthew kicked things off.

  He scooped Penny up with his tail, and that was it.

  Time to rock and roll.

  ‘Ben, go!’ Noah shouted. ‘Now!’

  ‘We’ll hold them back for you, chum!’ Magnific shouted as he charged forward, his friends following his lead.

  Times Square erupted into an all-out battle of superpowers as explosions of fire burst overhead and hail rained down, shattering on the street.

  Totes dashed across the battlefield so fast that I had to grab one of his horns to keep from falling off his back. Without Nix’s powers, I was vulnerable to every single thing out there, and there was A LOT.

  Fire. Ice. Vortexes. Lightning. A flying shark. Exploding asphalt chunks. Elastic arms. Water tornadoes. Blasts of energy. Warrior ghost ninjas raised from the dead. Mind-controlled insect armies. Lava monsters.

  It was like a Power Battle cranked to eleven.

  But most important, it kept William and Delilah busy.

  Totes bum-rushed the lizard-man, smashing into his scaly rib cage. Matthew rolled over but kept his hold on Penny as she screamed, her power swelling and splashing drops of energy on the ground.

  Matthew scurried to one of the buildings. If he went up the side, it would be impossible for us to follow.

  ‘Oh no you don’t!’ Totes said, running faster than I’d ever seen him run. ‘Hang on, Braverboy!’

  I wrapped my arms around the goat’s furry neck as he rammed the lizard in the ribs again. That time I heard bones crack, but I couldn’t tell if it was the lizard’s ribs or Totes’s horns.

  Probably a little of both.

  Matthew hissed in pain, dropping Penny. He spun around, furiously lashing out at us.

  I slid off Totes’s back as he stood up on his hind legs, waving his arms around and making noises like he was in a kung fu movie. ‘Waaaa, psh! Psh, psh, psh! Ki-ya!’

  In his confusion, the gecko cocked his head, but that one second of distraction was all Totes needed. The goat spun around and donkey-kicked the lizard in the jaw so hard that I saw stars.

  Matthew plopped down on the street, out cold. His body morphed back into a human.

  ‘Totaaal knockout!’ Totes cheered, hopping around his opponent with his front hooves in the air. ‘I am the G.O.A.T! The greatest of all tiiime!’

  The battle raged behind us as Penny jumped on Totes’s back, her power dripping from her skin like sweat.

  ‘Take her back to the ship!’ I said, slapping Totes’s butt.

  ‘Dude,’ he said. ‘Inappropriate … but I’ll allow it.’

  ‘Where are you gonna go?’ Penny said.

  ‘I’m going to help Noah and Dexter!’ I said.

  ‘Oh, cool, you got Nix on your head?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then that’s stupid!’ she said. ‘Unless you wanna die?’

  ‘I have to do something!’ I said.

  ‘Everybody out there has powers, and you don’t!’ Penny said. ‘Totes is more qualified to fight than you are!’

  Totes smiled proudly.

  Ouch.

  That one hurt.

  It’s all I ever wanted to be, but she was right.

  This time, it was a dumb idea.

  ‘Okay,’ was all I said.

  I ran as fast as I could next to Totes, who was purposefully going slow enough that I could keep up. Penny was on his back, crouched low like a jockey in the Kentucky Derby.

  Noah and Dexter were in the fight for their lives in the middle of Times Square. Magnific and his friends were powerful, but William was still able to hold ALL of them back with his vortexes. There must’ve been a dozen minivortexes he was controlling.

  The real threat was Delilah. She was shooting out lightning bolts from inside a ball of electricity, which completely shielded her from harm. She had already taken out a couple of Magnific’s friends.

  Vic was still floating in the air. She wasn’t fighting, but she wasn’t running, either. I don’t think she knew whose team she was on, which meant she hadn’t fully given in to the dark side. Maybe there was still hope for her.

  Dexter had transformed into a giant ice monster. In one hand, he had a shield that was actually the bonnet of a taxi. With his other hand, he machine-gunned snowballs at Delilah’s electric bubble.

  Noah played it safe, circling high above the battlefield, dropping firebombs around William, but never straight up hitting him.

  Totes, Penny and I ran to the ship. I peeked in the door and saw Nix, still on the operating table, but at least he was sitting up.

  Duncan swooped down from the sky. ‘Dexter and Noah need to fall back to the ship!’ he shouted. ‘Those tanks are only a few blocks away! The army can handle it from here!’

  I wanted to believe him, but I wasn’t sure he believed himself.

  That’s when I heard a gut-wrenching scream through the chaos. No matter how much noise there was, I’d always recognise the sound of my best friend’s cries of pain. I turned around just in time to see Noah’s body falling through the air, tiny bolts of electricity running over his skin.

  He had been struck by one of Delilah’s lightning bolts.

  The other superheroes were too busy with the battle to notice that Noah had been hit. Nobody was gonna help him.

  Without thinking, I ran towards my best friend, moving so fast that my shoes barely touched the ground. I couldn’t fly up and catch him, but maybe I could break his fall if I got under him, the same way Duncan had saved my life once.

  If this were a movie, time would slow to a crawl as Noah fell. The camera would look down on him so the audience could see the ground grow closer. And then, at the last second, I’d appear in the frame to catch him and save his life.

  But this wasn’t a movie.

  There was no slow-motion action sequence.

  No epic music.

  No cool camera angles.

  There was only the obvious truth that I wasn’t fast enough. Noah was gonna hit the ground, and there was nothing I could do.

  The only reason we were out there was that I selfishly wanted to be the hero.

  He was gonna die because of me.

  And then, in that instant, I magically zoomed forward, skimming the ground faster than Noah was falling and crashing into my friend just before he landed.

  We rolled across the asphalt as thick ropes wrapped around our bodies. When we finally stopped, we were on our backs, staring at the bright billboards hanging over us.

  Noah coughed as he sat up. ‘What happened?’

  I still wasn’t sure myself, that is, until I heard Nix’s voice in my head. ‘S’up, buddy?’

  He was back.

  And he was on my head right where he belonged.

  ‘Dude, I am so glad to see you,’ I said. ‘Er, hear you.’

  ‘Let’s save all that for later, huh?’ Nix said. ‘After we take care of these wads.’

  I surveyed the scene.

  Some of Magnific’s friends had tapped out, taking refuge by Nix’s ship because of how powerful Delilah and William were.

  In a single bound, I landed next to Delilah.

  She swung an electrified fist at me, but I used Nix’s tentacles to flip
around her before she could land the attack. She shotgunned another punch, but with Nix’s power, it was easy to dodge.

  I didn’t need to fight back.

  I only needed to keep her distracted.

  And now that Delilah was all about me, Dexter closed in behind her. He gave it everything he had, pulling a plume of snow up from under her feet. With the snap of his fingers, the snow turned into solid ice, trapping her in a frozen prison, except for one tiny spot over her mouth where she could still yell a bunch of ugly stuff at us.

  At that moment, Vic ran straight into Dexter’s arms, and he hugged her just as tightly as he said he would.

  With Delilah on ice, and Matthew TKO’d, William was the only one left.

  ‘That’s enough!’ he said. With a thrust of his hand, a dark vortex opened over his head. He circled his arms, forcing the death tornado to rise higher and grow larger. Cars slid across the street, and even the buildings surrounding Times Square bowed at William’s power.

  ‘What’re you doing?’ I said.

  ‘If you won’t give me Donnie, then I’ll force him to show up!’ William said. ‘How much you wanna bet he’ll magically appear if I destroy the world?’

  My stomach sunk as I suddenly understood. The Abandoned Children knew Donald Kepler changed history to save the world, and William was betting that Donnie would do the same thing.

  But the only problem was that Headmaster Kepler came from the future, so he knew the world was gonna end. Donnie probably went back in time. He wouldn’t have a clue about what William was doing.

  The vortex was massive, looming, and silently terrifying – not loud with thunder and lightning, but peaceful like wind drifting through long grass.

  I looked to Magnific and his buddies for help, but they were watching in shock, too hypnotised by the vortex of doom to do anything. Staring death in the face can make anyone’s brain go blank.

  ‘This isn’t gonna work!’ I said to William.

  He put his fingers in his ears like a baby. ‘I’M. NOT. LISTENING.’

  I ran up and shoved him. ‘Donnie went back in time, so your plan isn’t gonna work! It’s just gonna destroy the world!’