Superpowers

PUFFIN BOOKS

SUPER POWERS

THE RAGING BULLS

Books by Alex Cliff
SUPERPOWERS series

ALEX CLIFF

ILLUSTRATED BY LEO HARTAS

PUFFIN

PUFFIN BOOKS

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
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(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
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(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London
WC2R 0RL
, England

puffinbooks.com

Published 2007
1

Text copyright © Alex Cliff, 2007
Illustrations copyright © Leo Hartas, 2007
All rights reserved

The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted

Set in Bembo
Typeset by Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Grangemouth, Stirlingshire
Made and printed in England by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

EISBN
: 978–0–141–90245–6

For Peter, for everything, but most of all for
hearing the clipper-clapper and for always
knowing what I wish to sing.
(Stephen Crane:
There was a Man
with Tongue of Wood)

Just imagine…

One Who Will it Be?

Two Despair!

Three The Raging Bulls

Four Bucking Bronco!

Five Taming a Bull

Six The Battle Begins!

Seven The Symbol in the Wall

Eight The Power of Fellowship

Nine Scars

the grey stone walls of a ruined castle on a hillside. Beyond the castle walls, a dark moat glitters. It is quiet and peaceful, apart from the occasional caw of a group of ravens perched on the castle walls.

CRASH!

A thunderclap echoes around the castle keep. The ravens fly into the air in alarm as a hawk with cruel eyes swoops out of
the blue sky. The hawk lands beside the castle's one remaining tower. As it lands, it changes into a very tall woman. A cloak of brown-grey feathers swirls from her shoulders and her black eyes flash angrily. This is the evil goddess Juno.

She snaps her fingers and the stones on the inside of the tower wall start to crumble away. A man's proud face appears. He grabs the edges of the hole. ‘Today is the day, Juno!' he roars. ‘Today I will get the last of my superpowers back!'

‘Never, Hercules!' Juno cries. ‘I will not stand by and watch it happen!'

Hercules thumps his fist into the wall of the tower. ‘Seven tasks, you have set those two boys. They have succeeded in six. If they complete the final task today, I will get the last of my superpowers back
and will be able to break free from these walls. Then –' he glares at her – ‘then you will be sorry!'

‘But you will
not
get the power back today!' Juno shrieks. ‘The boys must bring twenty raging bulls back to the castle. No mortal could ever do that. The bulls will trample and gore them. They

will not survive. And when they die so do your chances of escape, Hercules. If you do not escape today your final superpower will fade and be lost to you forever!'

‘The boys will not fail me!' Hercules exclaims.

They stare at each other. Then Juno swings round angrily and snaps her fingers. The stones close over Hercules' face.

‘I will win!' Juno hisses, staring out at the castle keep. ‘I will!'

‘Your call,' Max said nervously. He and Finlay were sitting in his bedroom. Max looked at the coin in his hand. ‘Here goes.'

‘Heads!' Finlay called as Max flicked up the coin.

Finlay and Max both held their breath as they watched it spinning in the air.

A week ago, their lives had changed

forever. They had discovered the ancient hero, Hercules, trapped inside the walls of the ruined castle outside their village. Juno had taken his superpowers during a fight between Hercules and her and
placed them in the stones of the castle's gatehouse. Finlay and Max had been determined to free Hercules, and so each day, for seven days, they faced a terrifying task set by the evil goddess. These tasks would have been impossible for a normal human to complete but each day either Max or Finlay got to choose one of Hercules' superhuman powers to help them. Juno had made a deal with them that if they completed the task by sunset the superpower returned to Hercules. Today was the day of the final task.

The coin spun down.

Max caught it and covered it with his hand.

‘Well?' Finlay demanded.

Max slowly revealed the coin.

A mixture of relief and disappointment crossed his face. ‘It's heads.'

Finlay let out a deep breath. ‘Looks like I get the superpower of incredible-agility, then. I'll be able to run, climb and jump like a superhero.'

Max forced himself to smile. ‘And you'll have the chance to herd twenty raging bulls.'

‘Let me at ' em!' Finlay said with a shaky grin. ‘You'll help, though, won't you?'

‘You know I will,' Max replied, looking determined. ‘We're going to do this task and get Hercules his last superpower back!'

‘Then he can break free from the tower and fight Juno!' Finlay jumped to his feet and leapt forward, doing a karate chop.

‘Hi-yaa!' He tripped over a pile of Max's books. ‘Oof!' he exclaimed as he landed on the floor.

‘Hope Hercules does better than that if he fights Juno!' Max grinned.

Finlay picked himself up. ‘Ow,' he said, inspecting a recent cut on his leg. Blood was seeping out of it. ‘I'll be glad when all our wounds heal over.'

Every day either Max or Finlay had been injured while carrying out Juno's tasks. It was always the person with the superpower who seemed to get injured and each wound looked suspiciously like the symbols of the superpower they had taken that day. Max looked at his own three wounds – one on his hand, one on his leg and one on his arm. ‘I hope they turn into proper scars. That would be cool!'

‘I just hope I don't get another one today!' Finlay said. ‘What do you reckon these bulls will be like?'

‘I dunno but I looked up some stuff on the Internet last night,' Max replied
eagerly. He loved finding things out. ‘There was loads about bulls.'

‘But did it tell you what wild magic bulls conjured by psycho goddesses are like?' Finlay said.

Max grinned. ‘No, but I found out some general facts that might be useful.' He tried to remember what he'd read. ‘You can lead a bull around by putting a ring through its nose. If they're together in a group there's always one big boss bull that all the other bulls will follow. They hate red. Oh, and their horns are very sharp – they can kill a man by goring him.'