Superpowers (2 page)

Finlay groaned. ‘Oh, great, and we've got twenty of them to try and herd.'

‘Least we don't have to kill them,' Max said, looking on the bright side.

‘Yeah, we've just got to stop them from killing us!' Finlay took a deep breath and went to the door. ‘Come on, let's go. I need to get that superpower!'

Each morning, just as the sun shone on the gatehouse wall, the bricks crumbled from around Hercules' face, so he could see out of the tower and the superpowers lit up in the stones of the gatehouse. They shone for twenty minutes and the boys had to take the superpower then.

‘Where are you two off to?' Max's mum asked as Max and Finlay went into the kitchen.

‘The castle,' Max replied.

‘You'll be moving in there next!' Mrs Hayward smiled. ‘Are you still looking for the dungeon?'

‘Oh…um, yes!' Max said. On the
first day of half-term, six days ago, he and Finlay had set off to try and find the castle's secret dungeon, but then of course they had met Hercules and their plans had changed. Still, his mum didn't know that. No one did!

‘Oh well, I suppose you'll be there all day again,' Mrs Hayward said. ‘You'd better take some lunch with you. I'll just get it ready.'

It seemed to take Mrs Hayward forever to make the lunch. ‘That's enough, Mum,' Max said anxiously, as his mum started to butter even more bread for about the seventh round of sandwiches. He looked at the kitchen clock. Time was ticking by.

‘I'll just do you a few more,' his mum said cheerfully. ‘Can you find the picnic basket and rug, please, Max?'

‘Picnic basket!' Max stared at her. ‘Can't we just have a carrier bag, Mum?'

‘Everything will get squashed,' his mum said, looking at the mound of sandwiches and chocolate cake. ‘You might as well use the basket. You can tie it on to the back of your bike.'

Max exchanged looks with Finlay. He was going to feel really stupid cycling up to the castle with a picnic basket on the back of his bike but he didn't want to waste any more time by getting into an argument with his mum. ‘OK,' he muttered.

He fetched the basket and the red checked rug. His mum packed everything inside with four cans of Coke and some apples. ‘Have a good day, then!'

‘Thanks, Mum!' Max grabbed the basket and he and Finlay ran outside.

‘I thought we were going to be trapped in your kitchen forever!' Finlay exclaimed.

‘I can't believe we've got to take a picnic basket with us!' Max said.

‘At least the food looks good!' Finlay
replied, thinking of the chocolate cake he'd seen Mrs Hayward cutting up.

They hastily strapped the picnic basket on to Max's bike.

‘Come on!' Max exclaimed to Finlay.

‘Let's go!'

The cycle ride to the castle was all uphill. The boys stood on their pedals and cycled as fast as they could.

‘At least we'll be able to use our bikes to cycle to wherever these bulls are,' Finlay said as they bounced over the grass and stones on the overgrown footpath.

‘I hope Juno tells us where they are,' Max replied. Juno had a sneaky habit of
leaving them to search for the monsters they had to fight.

The castle came into view. The boys rode up to it and jumped off their bikes. Leaning them against the crumbling walls, Max and Finlay climbed through the ruined gatehouse and came out into the grassy castle keep. The sun was shining on the gatehouse wall and Hercules was already looking anxiously out of the tower.

‘Get the superpower quickly, boys, before Juno arrives,' he called urgently. ‘She will want to do everything she can to try and stop you succeeding in the task today!'

Max and Finlay saw the last of the seven symbols shining out of the stones around the gatehouse archway. It was a
picture of a stag leaping through the air – the symbol for Hercules' superpower of agility. Finlay raced over to it. The picture was traced in lines of white magic

fire. He slammed his hand down on it. Heat surged through his fingers and up his arm. He felt dizzy. Every muscle in his body suddenly seemed to buzz with energy. The stone beneath his fingers went cold.

Finlay turned round. ‘I've got it!'

He ran across the grass, back towards the tower. He didn't go much faster than normal but he felt light and full of energy, as if he could dodge and duck and turn without any effort at all. ‘Look at me!' he shouted, jumping high into the air and turning a somersault. He landed perfectly. ‘Cool, hey?' He grinned at Max and Hercules.

CRASH!

There was a clap of thunder and Juno appeared in the middle of the keep. Her
dark eyes flashed. Finlay hastily raced over to join Max.

‘Today is the day you fail!' she hissed, raising her hands. The boys instinctively shrank back. When Juno lifted her hands a fire bolt usually burst from them.

‘You must not hurt the boys, Juno!' Hercules shouted. ‘You have a deal with them. They can be injured by the task but you cannot harm them directly. You know the rules – you must play fair when you deal with humans!'

‘Maggots!' spat Juno, firing a ball of fire so it landed at Finlay's feet. He gasped and leapt to the side, dragging Max with him, just in time before the flames touched them.

‘Juno!' Hercules roared furiously. ‘You are breaking the rules!'

Juno glared at Max and Finlay but to their relief stopped throwing fireballs. ‘I might not be supposed to kill you while we have a deal, but you will be injured by the task today – fatally injured!' Her
voice rose and echoed around the castle walls. ‘You will not survive the twenty raging bulls of Geryon! They are twice as strong as normal bulls, and their horns are twice as sharp!'

‘We don't care!' Finlay declared.

But Max could hear the shake in Finlay's voice. His own legs felt like jelly but he ignored the way they were trembling. ‘Yeah! We'll bring those bulls back! Where are they?' he demanded.

‘Find out for yourselves!' Juno's eyes pierced the boys like a spear through a fish.

‘Boys,' Hercules shouted quickly, ‘you will need to…'

‘No!' Juno shrieked. ‘No advice today!' She clapped her hands. There was a crash of thunder; the wall re-formed over
Hercules' face. The boys blinked. Juno had vanished.

A hawk raced up into the sky, its dark eyes glittering savagely.

‘She's mad!' Finlay said, very relieved that Juno had gone.

Max nodded. His heart was pounding. ‘I hope we can bring these bulls back here.'

Finlay gulped. ‘Me too.'

For a moment they saw the doubt in the other one's eyes.

‘Max, we
are
going to be able to do this, aren't we?' Finlay said.

Max lifted his chin. ‘Yes.' He tried to make his voice sound firm. They couldn't let Juno win. They mustn't let Hercules down. ‘Think of all the tasks we've done this week. Everything's seemed
impossible but we've managed to do them all.'

‘You're right,' replied Finlay. ‘We've come this far. We're
not
going to fail now.' He took a deep breath. ‘Let's go find us those bulls!'

‘Where should we look?' Max asked eagerly.

Finlay remembered the time they'd been looking for the Nine-Headed River Monster, only to find that it had been in the castle moat all the time. ‘We should probably try the countryside near here first.' He looked at Hercules' tower and had an idea. ‘I know! I'll use my superpower and climb to the top of that tower to have a look round.'

‘Good idea,' agreed Max.

Finlay ran to the tower wall and
leapt up on to it, his hands and feet automatically finding stones that could be used as handholds and footholds. He climbed swiftly up the tower, one hand above the other. It was cool! He felt like Spider-Man.

Reaching the top, Finlay gripped the stones of the ledge and jumped lightly into a crouching position. He looked down at the keep and waved to Max, who was looking very alarmed.

‘Be careful, Fin!'

Finlay grinned. He was way up high, but he felt totally safe. His balance was perfect. He glanced round at the green fields and woods that surrounded the castle. From his vantage point, he could see the wooded slopes of Saddleback Mountain, where they had chased the
savage Giant Boar of Erymanthia.

Dotted between the trees was a patchwork blanket of fields. There were some golden cows grazing quietly in one field, a few horses in another, an empty field and…

Finlay's heart seemed to stop.

Twenty enormous black bulls were charging around the next field along. Their horns were curved and very long. The ones who weren't charging were pawing savagely at the ground and bellowing angrily. As he watched, the largest bull of all raced at the fence. The bull's horns crashed into the wood. It shook with the impact. The bull shook his head and prepared to charge again.

Icy fear gripped Finlay. If the fence gave way then the bulls would be free. The path their field was on led down into the village. If the bulls got out on to it they would stampede into the village centre…How many people would they injure or kill?