Out Of Time (Book 0): Super Unknown (2 page)

“Two
cappuccinos and a hot chocolate please.”

Sixteen-year-old
Dylan Nicolson gave the pretty, blonde customer his best smile. “Of course,
madam. Would you like any cream and marshmallows with the hot chocolate?”

The
woman shook her head dismissively and stared past him at the wall.

“Well,
I don’t know why I’m bothering being so nice to her,” he thought. “She seems
far too rude to leave a tip.”

Dylan
turned away to make her order and scowled as the huge, silver coffee machine
made a spluttering noise. That was never a good sign.

“Oh
don’t start playing up again,” he said as he stared at the long line of
customers. “We’re far too busy to deal with this.”

He
gave the shiny machine a whack and it whirred back into life and delivered the
coffees as programmed. The only problem was, they were all freezing cold.

“Argh!”
Dylan thought.

“Is
there a problem?” the snooty blonde said. “Only I’m in a hurry.”

“No,
no. Everything’s fine. I’ll only be a minute.”

He
stared at the drinks. “I need to heat these up double quick,” he thought. He
stood so his back shielded the cups from the customers, glanced around to make
sure no one was looking, then touched the three mugs. “Heat,” he willed the
coffee. “Please.” The liquids started bubbling and within a few seconds, they
were hot enough to serve.

“Here
you go,” Dylan said as he placed them on a tray and carried them over to the
customer, who was glancing at her watch impatiently. “That’ll be £5.97 please.”

The
woman handed over a £10 note, snatched her change without saying a word, then
took her drinks and stomped over to a table where her two friends were waiting.

“Charming,”
Dylan muttered. “I’m so glad it’s nearly 6.30pm, so I can go home.”

He’d
only been at work since 3.30pm, but it had been a very busy and long shift. He
looked up brightly as he saw his workmate Kasey walk through the front door.

“Evening!”
he called. Thank goodness you’re here, so I can go home.” He headed out the
back, pulled his burgundy apron off and grabbed his coat. He ran a hand through
his wavy, brown hair in a bid to make it look more presentable. “Sorry, I have
to rush because I promised my parents I’d babysit Sophia tonight. Is that OK?”

A
rather stunned Kasey nodded, realising she didn’t have much choice in the
matter. Dylan darted out the door while he had the chance and started pacing
home through the streets of Enfield Town. If she realised the coffee machine
was broken, she might make him stay late to help out – he also wanted to get
out of there before anyone noticed he’d heated those drinks up. He doubted they
would, but ever since he’d discovered he had strange powers a couple of weeks
ago, he had been paranoid that someone would find out.

He
first learned he could manipulate water when he almost flooded the house by
breaking the kitchen tap. As the water gushed everywhere and drenched the
floor, he had screamed “Stop!” at the sink in a panic. He was amazed when it
actually worked.

In
the movies, superheroes always came into their powers in the midst of a
life-threatening situation, so he was disappointed that his own coming of age
was such a non-event. But then again, the risk of your parents killing you for
trashing the house is as scary as certain death for a teenager, so, in a way,
it made sense that his skills had kicked in at that moment.

Over
the last two weeks, he had found that he could change the temperature of water
as well as stopping and starting the flow of it. He was only just getting the
hang of it really, but he was enjoying learning how his powers worked and
experimenting with doing new things. The only worry was other people finding
out. He hadn’t told anybody for fear of what they would say or do. He thought
he would either be labelled as crazy or carted off to be experimented on by
nosey scientists. He didn’t want that.

“Hi,
I’m home!” Dylan called as he walked into his house 10 minutes later. “What’s
for dinner? I’m starving.”

There
was no answer, so he walked through to the kitchen in search of his family, but
there was no one there either. “Mum? Dad?” he said as he tiptoed through to the
living room. He pushed the door open slowly.

“Get
him!” a voice shouted.

“I’m
on it,” said a tall, skinny man in a black uniform, who rushed to grab hold of
Dylan.

“What
the...” he started to say, but the man put a hand over his mouth. As he quickly
looked round the room, he saw his mum, dad and Sophia sitting on the sofa at
the other side of the room. They were all tied up and gagged. There was another
uniformed man in the room, but this one was shorter and chubby.

“Take
him to the garage and throw him in the van,” he said. ”I’ll bring the girl.”

“OK,
boss. What about the folks?”

“Leave
them, they’re of no use to us. Our orders are to take the kids. Be quick before
he tries something – we don’t know what his power is.”

As
the thinner man dragged Dylan through the house towards the adjoining garage,
he desperately looked around for water he could control in a bid to save
himself, but there was nothing.

“Well,
this is a useless power,” he thought. “Better try the old-fashioned way
instead.” And with that, Dylan stamped down hard and fast on his assailant’s
toes.

“Hey,
you little…” the man said as he pulled out a gun and whacked Dylan round the
head with it. “Don’t you try anything else or I’ll kill your whole family, you
hear me?” He shoved him through the door to the garage where a large, white
Transit van was parked. He clicked the back door open and pushed Dylan inside
forcefully. “Now get in there and stay in there.”

Dylan
stumbled to his knees on the floor of the van before noticing three more
teenagers sitting near the back – two girls and a boy. Suddenly, Sophia was
bundled in next to him and the doors slammed shut behind them, leaving them in
total darkness. He listened as the men jumped in the front and started the
engine up, before driving out of the garage and onto the road outside.

“Let
us out!” Dylan yelled as he jumped to his feet and banged on the back doors in
vain. He slumped to the floor in defeat. “Where are we going?” he said quietly.

“We
don’t know,” a male voice replied. “They took us hostage too and we have no
idea why. I’m Jay by the way.”

Dylan
squinted through the darkness – he could just about see his fellow prisoners.

“Dylan,”
he said. “And this is my sister, Sophia.”

“Toshiko,”
said a fashionably dressed Japanese girl.

“I’m
Neelam,” the third teenager, a beautiful Asian girl with lustrous, long hair
said. “And I think I might have an idea why these men have taken us.”

“You
know something?” Jay said in response to Neelam’s revelation. “Why on earth
didn’t you tell us?”

“I
only found out a minute ago,” she said with a shrug of the shoulders.

“What?
How?” Jay looked around in confusion.

Neelam
stared at the floor of the van as if searching for the right words. “I’m telepathic,”
she eventually said. “I have been able to read thoughts for about a month now,
so I peeked into those drivers’ minds just now and picked the information about
what their plans are for us out of their brain.”

Jay
laughed. “Yeah right.”

“It’s
true.”

“And
I suppose you can fly and see through walls too,” Toshiko said, shaking her
head.

“I
can
read people’s minds,” Neelam protested. “I can! I’m not brilliant at
it yet, but I can do it.”

“Alright
then super wonder girl or whatever you call yourself, why can’t you break us
out of here if you’re so amazing and powerful?” Jay was obviously trying to be
funny, but she looked hurt.

Neelam
sighed. “I said I’m a telepath, not someone who can leap tall buildings, tear
through metal and fly into outer space.”

Unlike
Jay and Toshiko, Dylan was sure she was telling the truth, so he jumped in to
defend her. “I believe you.”

Jay
laughed. “You’re crazy.”

“No
I’m not,” Dylan said. “But I do believe in super powers or whatever it is you
call Neelam’s special gift.”

“Oh
come on…” Jay said. “Are you for real?”

“Very
much so,” Dylan said. He eyed up a tiny puddle of liquid in the middle of the
floor. “Watch,” he said as he reached forward to touch the water and freeze it.
The group fell silent. He repeated the process, only this time he melted the
ice.

“You
too!” Neelam gasped.

“No
way,” Jay said.

Toshiko
just shook her head in amazement.

“How
did you do that?” a scared Sophia asked. Dylan turned around to see his
nine-year-old sister sitting in the corner looking wide-eyed. He had completely
forgotten she was there.

“Don’t
be afraid,” he said. “It’s just something I recently learned to do. I’m still
the same Dylan – your over-protective big bro.” He beamed her a huge smile.

Sophia
grinned back shyly. “It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I wish I had super powers.”

“You
might have,” Neelam said. “If what I learned from those men is true that is.”

“What
did you find out?” Dylan asked. In the rush to defend Neelam, he’d completely
forgotten about her revelation.

“Well,
they seem to think we all have these special gifts.”

“What!”
Jay said. “Not me.”

“From
what I can gather, earlier today a boy called Andrew manifested some kind of
invulnerability power when he was in a road accident. For some reason, they’ve
linked us to him and come to the conclusion that we have special abilities too.
They’re taking us to a lab somewhere to test their theory out.”

“You
and I have powers,” Dylan said. “They might be right.”

“Nah,
I ain’t got nothing like that,” Toshiko said.

“Well,
I’ve only had this ability for two weeks, Neelam said she’s been reading minds
for a month and this Andrew guy found out today. Chances are, you and Jay simply
don’t know yet.”

Just
then, the van pulled up again and the men got out and slammed the doors shut.

“Where
are we?” Sophia whispered.

“I
don’t know,” Dylan said. He slid over and put his arm around her. “But I
promise that I’ll protect you whatever happens.”

“Do
you think we’re at the lab?” Jay asked. “Do the mind readingy thing again,
Neelam.”

“I
can’t,” she said. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It sounds like
they’ve walked away and they have to be close by for my power to work.”

“I
think we should get out of here while the van’s stopped,” Toshiko said.

“Good
idea,” Jay agreed. “Dylan, can you use your powers?”

“I’m
not sure. All I do is control water.” He looked at Toshiko, Jay and Neelam, who
were staring at him hopefully, then turned to see the frightened look on his
little sister’s face. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Dylan
looked around in the desperate hope that an escape plan would present itself to
him, but all he could see were bare, rusty walls. He stared back at the small
puddle of liquid on the floor, then looked to the door.

“Jay,
how strong are you?”

“Not
very. Why?”

“I’m
thinking about freezing the lock on the back door. I wonder if, with the
combined efforts of the two of us, we could then bash it open.”

“Well,
we can give it a go. Good idea, mate.”

Dylan
focussed on the puddle and willed the liquid to lift up into the air and over
to the lock, where he swiftly turned it to ice.

“OK,
Jay, let’s smash that thing.”

The
two boys repeatedly pummelled on the locked double doors until they finally
sprung open.

“Result!”
Jay shouted, giving Dylan a high five. “Now let’s get out of here.” He leapt
out of the van and helped Toshiko and Neelam down, while Dylan grabbed Sophia.

“Where
are we?” he asked as he jumped out of the van. He looked up and down the
tree-lined road, which was full of large, Victorian houses.

“Dunno,”
Jay said, “but we haven’t been driving long, so we must still be in north
London somewhere. Let’s peg it for now and figure that out later.”

As
the four teens and Sophia turned to scarper up the road, a blonde girl came
running out of the house next to them.

“Get
back here!” the skinnier one of the two kidnappers shouted. “Or I’ll shoot you and
your brother.”

The
girl spun around and fired a huge blast of lightning from her hands, knocking
him to the ground.

“What
was that? What did I do?” she said as she fell to her knees and stared at her
hands in disbelief.

The
chubby guard came running out and he was dragging a younger, blond boy with
him.

“Let
him go!” she shouted as she let out another devastating lightning bolt, but she
missed the attacker and destroyed half the front porch instead. The man shoved
the boy in front of him as a shield and held a gun to his head.

“Now,
now, Miss Watts. There’s no need to get violent.”

“Don’t
kill my brother,” she begged.

“No
one’s going to get hurt so long as you do as we say and get in that van.” He
turned to Dylan, Sophia, Toshiko, Neelam and Jay. “And that includes you lot.
Don’t think I haven’t noticed your pathetic escape plan. You run and I’ll shoot
you all.”

“You’ll
never get away with that,” Dylan said. “The cops will arrest you.”

The
man laughed, then pulled a badge out of his pocket. “Master Nicolson, we
are
the cops. Now get in that van. All of you.”

The
scrawny guard, who had been hit by the lightning, got up off the floor and
pointed his gun in their direction. “Do as he says.”

“Any
genius ideas?” Jay whispered as they trudged back to the van.

“Afraid
not,” Dylan said solemnly. “I can’t believe they’re the police. This is getting
weirder by the minute.”

The
blonde girl was still frozen to the spot, stubbornly refusing to move.

“Look,
little lady, I’m taking your brother to the van. You coming or am I going to
have to put a bullet through his head?”

She
lifted her hands and flung them in his direction, but nothing happened. “Oh,”
she said. “It didn’t work that time.”

“Van.
Now!”

She
reluctantly followed his orders and climbed into the Transit along with her
brother and the other teens. The men slammed the doors shut before padlocking them
together.

“And
no more crazy escape attempts,” one of them said sternly through the closed
door. “I’m losing my patience with you dumb kids.”

“Hi,”
Dylan said to the two new prisoners as the vehicle started to move. “You have
super powers too.”

“Powers?”
the girl said. “Is that what made me do what I did back there?”

“I
assume so. Didn’t you know you had those abilities?”

She
shook her head. “One minute I was desperately trying to save me and my brother,
the next I was throwing lightning bolts out of nowhere.” She stared at her
hands. “It’s kinda cool, but very scary.”

“I
know,” he said. “I only discovered I could control water a couple of weeks ago
and I’m still getting used to it. I’m Dylan by the way.”

“Lucy,”
she said with a shy smile. She was very pretty, not really his type, but pretty
nonetheless.

“Welcome
Lucy,” Jay said, interrupting. From the way he was posturing, it would seem that
he found her attractive too. “I’m Jay and these are our co-inmates, Neelam,
Toshiko and Dylan’s sister, Sophia.”

“Hi,”
she said. “This is my brother Aaron.”

“Do
you have powers?” Dylan asked the boy, who was looking scared and nervous.

“Nope,”
he said. He stared around the group and gave everyone a little wave.

“Do
you know where they’re taking us?” Lucy asked.

“We’re
not certain, but we think we’re headed to a lab,” Neelam said. “I read their
minds. They don’t seem to know much other than that whoever is giving them
orders wants us because they think we have powers.”

“I
don’t like the sound of that,” Lucy said. “What are they going to do – dissect
us like aliens or something?”

“Gross,”
Jay said.

“Aliens
don’t exist. They’re just science fiction,” Neelam said, shaking her head in
disbelief.

“Yeah,
well till today, I thought the same about super powers,” Lucy quipped.

“Fair
point.” Neelam laughed reluctantly, then pulled her legs towards herself
awkwardly. “I’m scared.”

“Me
too,” Lucy agreed.

“I
think we all are.” Dylan looked around at the group. Everyone was looking
apprehensive as though they were worried about what was going to happen to
them. He couldn’t summon the energy to cheer them all up, so he hutched over to
Sophia and put his arm her instead.

“It’ll
be all right,” he promised her, partially trying to convince himself. “It will
all be OK.”