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