Michael Carroll - Sakkara

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.”

“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.”