The New Heroes: Crossfire Read online

  Copyright © 2015 Michael Carroll

  Michael Carroll asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved.

  MaxEdDal Publications

  www.quantumprophecy.com

  ISBN: 1517394473

  ISBN-13: 978-1517394479

  First published 2015

  For our wonderful friends,

  the Totally Excellently Awesome Evans family:

  Julie, Izzy, Tom, Dan and Dave

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to extend my warmest, fuzziest and sweetest-smelling thanks to my agents; to the publishers; to my editors Matt Morgan, Nicholas Lake, Kiffin Steurer and Brian Geffen; to the copy-editors and designers and type-setters and marketing people and the countless others who work in the background and never seem to receive much credit; to my fellow writers, whose books you really should be reading instead of mine—er, I mean as well as mine; to the wonderful convention committees who somehow still keep inviting me to their events; to the noble librarians and stalwart teachers and courageous book-store folk who’ve promoted and supplied my books; to my friends and family for their continued support (even those who don’t actually read the books but still believe that they’re entitled to freebies...).

  Special thanks as always to my old pal Michael Scott who started me on this road.

  Super-special thanks to my darling wife, the utterly adorable Leonia; there isn’t enough paper in the world to fit all the thanks she deserves.

  And, lastly but not leastly, mega-ultimate-hyper thanks to the readers, many of whom have waited very patiently for this book!

  Previously...

  (AKA A Note from the Author!)

  So, here we are in 2015, thirteen years after I first began working on the Quantum Prophecy / New Heroes series. We’re not quite at the end yet, but we’re getting there!

  Crossfire is the eighth novel in the series. Yes, eighth! Some readers might be familiar only with the original trilogy, others only with the prequel series, so for those people the following will give you a taste of what you’ve missed! (But just a taste: for the full experience, you’ll have to read the books themselves!)

  The original trilogy (The New Heroes, published as Quantum Prophecy in the USA) opens ten years after a huge battle in which all of the world’s superhumans disappeared. There have been no superhumans (heroes or villains) since.

  The chief protagonists are young teenagers Colin Wagner and Danny Cooper, who discover that they are developing superhuman powers of their own. They soon learn that they are the offspring of some of the original superheroes: it is revealed that superhuman abilities develop at puberty, and the device that stripped the original heroes of their powers has not affected those whose powers had yet to manifest.

  Danny develops incredible speed, while Colin has enhanced strength and senses, and—later—the ability to manipulate many forms of energy.

  Colin and Danny come into conflict with twenty-one-year-old Victor Cross, a hyper-intelligent superhuman who has very much his own ideas as to how the human race should be controlled. Along they way, they also meet Renata Soliz, a fourteen-year-old girl who was effectively frozen in time ten years earlier, shortly before the other superhumans lost their powers, and Solomon Cord, formerly the non-powered superhero known as Paragon.

  In book 2 they move to Sakkara, a fortified base near Topeka, Kansas, where they learn that they are not alone: the base is home to twin sisters Mina and Yvonne Duval (who are later revealed to be clones of the supervillain Ragnarök), and sixteen-year-old Butler Redmond. Cross realizes that these new heroes could be a threat to his plans, and so begins a power-struggle with Cross backed by his powerful, rapidly-growing organization, the Trutopians, which culminates in Colin being forced to choose whether to save the life of his friend Solomon Cord or Renata’s entire family: he chooses the latter.

  The last book of the trilogy sees Yvonne joining the Trutopians to spark a devastating world-wide war. They are eventually defeated, Yvonne is captured and Cross is seemingly killed: however, at the very end it is revealed that Cross has faked his death and is actually in the process of creating a number of clones of Colin.

  Tied in with the original trilogy is the short-story collection The New Heroes: Superhuman which includes two novellas—The Footsoldiers and Flesh and Blood—that focus on minor characters; both novellas are also available as e-books.

  The prequel series begins about twenty-three years before the original trilogy, before the older generation of superhumans lost their powers...

  Super Human: The Helotry, a secret and very powerful organization, attempts to snatch the world’s first superhuman—Krodin—from his own era some 4000 years in the past. They believe that it is Krodin’s destiny to rule the entire human race, and they are willing achieve this at any cost. To aid their plan they unleash a devastating virus on the world which debilitates all adults. It’s down to only a handful of teenage superhumans to stop them... Abby (super-strong and very fast), Thunder (able to manipulate sound), Roz (telekinetic) and Brawn (thirteen feet tall, invulnerable, immeasurably strong) work alongside would-be teen con-artist Lance McKendrick (no super powers) to stop the Helotry from bring Krodin out of the past.

  The Ascension: The heroes suddenly find that the world has changed: they are in an alternate time-line where Krodin has taken control of the USA and is attempting to subjugate the rest of the world. With most of that reality’s superhumans already dead, only our heroes are aware that this is not how the world should be. Ultimately, Lance is able to defeat Krodin by using one of his own machines against him: Lance uses a teleporter to take Krodin out of the past—before he could change history—and transport him to the airless deserts of Mars. With that done, the time-line returns to normal, with only the young heroes aware of the change.

  Stronger: This is Brawn’s story, detailing his life from the moment his superhuman abilities first appeared to his encounter, twenty-seven years later, with Colin Wagner (which occurs in the middle of the third book of the original trilogy).

  Hunter: Lance McKendrick’s life-story. Covering a period of about thirteen years, we see Lance grow from a rather selfish, arrogant teenager into a confident and compassionate adult, against the backdrop of superhuman conflicts and world-changing events.

  For an overview of how the books fit together chronologically, here’s the official timeline (it’s based on the notion that the first book in the original trilogy is “year zero”, which means that Crossfire takes place about two years after that)...

  A few final notes... At the request of the publishers, the US edition of the third book in the original trilogy (The Reckoning, otherwise known as Absolute Power) contains an additional scene at the end of the book. For those who’ve never read that edition, I’ve included that scene as “Prologue 1” in this book.

  The future of the series is, as ever, rather fluid. I do know exactly how it’s all going to end, but I don’t yet know when. Far too many different things can and do exert an influence on the best-laid plans... I can tell you that there will be at least one more novel in the series. And I’m not (yet) ruling out the possibility of “side” novels or novellas that are connected to the main series but work as stand-alone stories. You’ll just have to wait and see! Do please check out the website (www.quantumprophecy.com) for the latest news.

  But right now, this is Crossfire... The New Heroes are back!

  What happened to Daniel Cooper after the Trutopian war? What about Renata Soliz, stripped of her powers? What new dangers will Colin Wagner face? And what on Earth is Victor Cross planning?

  Keep reading, my friends... The answers lie within!

  Michael Carroll

>   Dublin, Ireland, October 2015

  Prologue 1

  One year ago...

  Danny sat by Renata’s bed until he was sure she was asleep, then he gently pulled his hand free from hers and walked over to the window. Night was creeping over the horizon, the clouds orange-tinted from the fires in Topeka.

  He knew he should be out there with Colin and the others, helping to restore some semblance of normality to the world, but they hadn’t asked him and he hadn’t felt inclined to offer.

  The vision came true.

  A sudden violent shudder rippled through him.

  Oh God, it came true.

  He realized now that he’d been scared ever since he’d seen the vision of his future self in the Californian desert.

  Quantum had foreseen the deaths of billions of people, and had known—somehow—that Danny would be responsible.

  That didn’t happen, Danny thought. Thousands died—maybe even hundreds of thousands—but not billions. So either we changed the future Quantum saw or his vision wasn’t about the Trutopian war.

  What scared him most was that Quantum’s visions had driven him almost insane.

  Is that what’s going to happen to me?

  How long do I have before I can’t take it any more?

  He checked once more that Renata was sleeping comfortably, then silently left the infirmary and made his way to his own room.

  As his bedroom door hissed open, the door to next room did the same. Niall leaned out, grinned, and padded barefoot towards him. “Is she gonna be all right?”

  Danny nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”

  Niall followed his brother into his room. “Can’t you, like, see into the future and tell for sure?”

  “Doesn’t work like that,” Danny said. “I can’t control it.”

  “Dad said that the visions are like watching a tiny bit of a movie you’ve never seen before. You can see what’s happening but you don’t know exactly what it means. Is that right?”

  “That’s it exactly.”

  Niall climbed onto the bed and sat cross-legged, absently picking at his toe-nails as he looked at Danny. “They keep talking about how it’s all your fault.”

  Danny stopped in the middle of pulling on his jacket. “They?”

  “The news. They’re saying that you forced everyone into going to Lieberstan, and if you hadn’t done that then there wouldn’t have been a war.”

  “The war has nothing to do with Lieberstan, Niall.”

  “Yeah, but they keep saying—”

  “I know. They do that because if you tell the same lie over and over and don’t give anyone a chance to hear the truth, then eventually you’ll get enough people believing your story that the truth becomes the lie. Give me a hand with this, would you?”

  Niall jumped off the bed and zipped up Danny’s jacket. “Are you gonna get another robot arm?”

  “Yeah. If they’ll make me one. Thanks.”

  “But—”

  Danny cut him off. “Sorry, Niall. But I don’t want to talk about that now. OK?”

  “Sure. But…”

  “What?”

  Niall looked away. “What about me, Danny? What powers am I going to get?”

  “You might get the same powers Façade had. You know, being able to change your appearance.” He smiled. “Be pretty cool that, wouldn’t it?”

  “I guess. But Dad was a bad guy. For a while.”

  “I know, but he did the right thing in the end. He’s not a bad guy now. You just make sure you always do the right thing, and you’ll be OK.”

  Niall looked up at him, unblinking. “You did the right thing, and look what they’re saying about you.”

  Danny gave his brother another smile, showing a confidence he didn’t feel. “Things’ll work out all right in the end. Now go on back to your room. I’ve got to go out there and help Colin and the others.”

  He winked, then slipped into slow-time and left the room.

  Seconds later Danny stood on the roof of Sakkara and looked out toward the city.

  Quantum said that I would be responsible for a war in which billions of people are going to die. Well, I know I’m not responsible, but everyone is blaming me anyway. Is that what he was sensing?

  The visions come without context.

  I saw myself leading a group of kids away from an army, and that’s what happened. But in the vision, when they fired at me, I raised my mechanical arm and the bullets bounced off an invisible shield.

  I figured that was something built into the arm, but it was Butler’s force-field.

  And I wasn’t leading the kids, I was rescuing them.

  He stepped up onto the low wall that skirted the edge of the roof, paused for a moment, then ran down the building’s sloping side and through the now-deserted army base.

  Despite everything that had happened, Danny was a little cheered up by this.

  I can move so fast that gravity doesn’t have enough time to take hold of me. It reminded him of a cartoon character running off the edge of a cliff. As long as the character doesn’t look down, he’s safe.

  In slow-time I can do almost anything. I could—

  He stopped himself in mid-speculation.

  Slow-time. Why do I call it that? If anything it should be fast-time.

  He couldn’t remember when he’d first started to use the phrase, but it felt right.

  He remembered his old teacher, Mr Stone, telling them that speed was “distance over time.” “Thirty miles per hour,” Mr Stone had said. “That means that in an hour the car would cover thirty miles. Obviously.”

  Danny skidded to a stop. He was now in the heart of Topeka, at north-east corner of Gage Park.

  Time.

  My powers are connected to time, not speed. That’s why I get visions of the future.

  He thought back to Max Dalton’s power-damping machine in California. Colin had been trying to break through the machine’s armor-plating, and Danny had placed his arm on Colin’s shoulder in the hope of somehow imparting some of his speed to Colin, but it hadn’t worked.

  Why did I even think that was possible?

  He shifted back into normal-time, and looked around. This part of the city had been relatively untouched by the war, but a few hours earlier it—like the rest of the world—had been completely crystalline.

  Renata was able to extend her powers beyond herself, so maybe I can too.

  Maybe I can alter everyone’s perception of time.

  He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on his own future, tried to see what was coming.

  There was nothing.

  After the vision in California, all he’d had since were vague feelings.

  But if it happened once, then it can happen again. Everything I saw came true. Does that mean that the future can’t be changed?

  Something moving through the night sky caught his attention. Danny looked up to see Colin drifting down towards him.

  Colin was grinning, but looked exhausted. “Thought that was you! It’s crazy out there, Dan. I saw a man stuck on the roof his house and when I went to help him he threw a brick at me. Then he panicked and fell off and I almost didn’t catch him. So, how’s Renata?”

  “She was asleep when I left her. I think she’s going to be OK. Apart from losing her powers.”

  Colin nodded. “Well, I’m glad you’re with us now. Steph and Mina and Butler are out on the west-side trying to persuade a bunch of Trutopians to give up. They didn’t hear Yvonne’s message. There’s probably a lot of them out there still fighting. Come on, I’ll fly you over that way.” He was already rising into the air, his hand out-stretched to Danny.

  Danny reached out and grabbed hold of Colin’s hand…

  … And suddenly he was in a different place. A huge crater. Colin was at the center, lying on the ground, his entire body blackened and burned. He wasn’t moving. He wasn’t breathing.

  Another flash, and Danny was looking at himself, about the same age as he was now,
but with both arms intact. And there was another difference: this two-armed Danny had a look in his eyes that chilled him; a glare of pure hatred and ruthlessness.

  Then a third flash. Danny was crouched on the ground, looking down at the dead body of a man he didn’t recognize. But now, for the first time, the vision came with sound: A voice behind him said, “You didn’t have to kill him.”

  Danny jerked his hand back.

  “What? What is it?” Colin said.

  “Nothing, I just… Maybe I’d better go back and get some armor.”

  “’Kay. I’ll wait here.”

  Danny shifted into slow-time, and ran back toward Sakkara.

  He couldn’t let himself think about the visions now. There’s work to be done. People to be saved. That’s what the good guys do, after all. And I’m one of the good guys.

  But he couldn’t help asking himself, Are you sure about that?

  Prologue 2

  Kenya Cho paused half-way up the long straight hill. Ahead, the yellow glow of her home’s downstairs lights surely meant her parents were still up. She took a deep breath in the hope that it would steady her nerves. Be cool, she told herself. It worked last time, it’ll work this time too.

  Kenya had spent the day with old friends who lived outside the community. That wasn’t actually forbidden, but it was frowned upon.

  The community—eight miles east of Fianarantsoa—was the first Trutopian establishment in Madagascar, and was home to almost two thousand people, more than half of whom had joined in the past six months.

  Kenya’s non-Trutopian friends constantly ribbed her about being in a “cult” but she didn’t care—her family had been among the first to join the community, and it was plain to everyone that they were happier now than before. Her parents both had jobs, and she and her older brother Eugene were doing well in the community’s high-school.

  She liked the Trutopian ideals—they made sense. Work hard, obey the law, and you will be safe. Simple as that. There was no crime in the community, no one went hungry, you could always rely on your friends and neighbors for help.