Rise of the Heroes by Andy Briggs

kids!”
    Toby and his gang stopped several yards away, the villain’s actions catching them by surprise.
    â€œGet your men to put their weapons down,” Pete said, watching them cautiously.
    Highbrow scrutinized them like a principal over unruly pupils. He stood with his hands on his hips, and the cape chose that moment to billow impressively behind him in the breeze.
    â€œAnd exactly who are you?” he inquired.
    â€œWe’re superheroes. And we’re stopping you,” Pete said boldly.
    â€œReally? Superheroes, you say? Well, fancy that. Impressive costumes. Part of the ‘Invisible Brigade’? Or maybe junior members of the ‘Titanic Team’? Well … people call me Doc Tempest.” He smirked, exposingyellowing teeth that resembled shark fangs. “And I’m here … to
kill
you.”
    With a casual gesture, his troopers fired in unison.
    In times of danger the human body produces adrenaline to fuel an ancient “fight or flight” instinct. For Toby, Lorna, Emily, and Pete, the world seemed to slow to a crawl as the chemical globules fired from the weapons headed straight at them. They all chose the same initial instinct—flight.
    Literally.
    Toby, Pete, and Lorna darted skyward without thinking. Emily tensed and abruptly disappeared with a thunderclap just as the glue-balls collided on the ground where they had once stood, and inflated into a giant gooey mass that would have ensnared and suffocated them.
    Doc Tempest looked around in mute surprise. Lorna and Pete landed on separate sides of the street. Toby flew toward and over Doc Tempest, landing next to the large, ornate clock that stood over the bank’s entrance. He hung to the vertical surface like a spider. Doc Tempest twisted around to follow his progress and was surprised to see Emily standing right behind him!
    Emily was also startled to find she had accidentally teleported herself
closer
to the danger. She leaped into flight with her arms extended and swooped straight into Tempest’s face. The impact caused him to reelbackward, and he tripped over the cash-laden cases and fell sprawling to the ground.
    Two of the troopers reacted as Emily flew low across the street. Tempest’s men had endured months of hard training and had already served in a variety of military units in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Colombia. Their experience had taught them to lead a moving target—so they planned to fire their weapons just ahead of Emily’s predicted trajectory so she couldn’t outrace the resin gumballs.
    Lorna turned to the thug next to her just as he was about to squeeze the trigger. She squinted, and immediately a pulse of energy shot from her eyes and slammed hard into the man. He was flung several feet across the street, his gun melting as it took the brunt of the blast. The front of his uniform burned away in a large patch that revealed red scalded skin beneath. For a second Lorna was horrified that she might have killed him, but his groans of pain assured her he was still alive.
    The other guy had fired sucessfully. As the gumballs shot toward Emily, Pete extended his hands—and a jet of super-frozen air leaped forth and shattered the glueballs mid-flight. The gunman switched his aim to Pete. But after years of dealing with packs of bullies Pete had anticipated the move—and a huge ball of ice slammed into the man’s face, knocking him unconscious.
    Doc Tempest snarled with rage at Emily as heclimbed back to his feet. “What is this? Who are you little brats?”
    Lorna stepped forward. “Like we said. We’re the heroes.”
    â€œI have not heard of four …
children
,” the word dripped with sarcasm, “that have proven themselves as
heroes
.”
    One of the remaining two soldiers had gotten to his feet. He glanced at his fallen colleagues in alarm and impulsively raised his weapon at Lorna. He barely had time to line the shot up