The OK Team (18 page)

We take a lift to the fifteenth floor, emerging to find two doors. One is locked, chained and barred. The other is open and with a sign that reads ‘Roof ' with an arrow.

‘This way!' says Cannonball. the battle of the tick tocks

‘You're a genius,' Mr Fabulous sneers. ‘Right, into formation please.'

‘Guys, huddle!' I say. We come together, gloves touching in the middle as we've practised. Cannonball, Torch, Liarbird, Yesterday, Switchy and me. Mr Fabulous mutters and shakes his head in the background instead of joining in.

I look at my teammates' faces. They are white, sweating, scared. We're a long way from the ground, about to face a city villain.

‘I'm OK!' I yell.

‘You're OK!' they yell back.

‘We're OK!' we finish together.

‘Gee, why don't you make some more noise?' our mentor asks.

I can feel my focus wavering wildly, but tell myself it is excitement as well as fear. ‘Let's go!' I say, and we burst through the door and up the stairs to the roof.

TimeZone is wearing huge black boots, watches up and down both arms, and a black skin-tight costume with a giant clockface on the front. I look closely and notice the clock's hour and minute hands are swinging wildly.

‘Wow, how does he do that on his chest?' Torch asks.

‘No idea, it must be some kind of battery,' says Switchy.

‘Looks cool though,' I admit.

‘We here for a fashion show or a fight?' Cannonball asks, storming past.

TimeZone yells, and suddenly five other villains appear from behind a massive metallic air conditioning unit. They are shorter but musclebound and wearing different-coloured costumes, the fronts of which are decorated with different clocks.

‘It's the Tick Tocks, TimeZone's notorious henchmen!' yells Mr Fabulous. ‘Designer Watch, Alarm Clock, Stop Watch, and the veteran henchmen, Grandfather Clock and Fobwatch!'

We fan out and I realise we are already down a member. I look wildly around and see Yesterday huddled against the air conditioning unit.

‘Yesterday, what's wrong?'

‘I'm scared of heights. It's so far down.'

‘Stay there unless we need you,' I say. ‘Switchy, can you turn into a giant clock?'

‘I'll try,' he says and changes into a penguin. It shakes and turns red then tranforms into a giant glass of water.

And finally a DVD player. At least it has a digital clock on the front.

‘Ooh!' says TimeZone, waving his arms. ‘Look, the time is correct on that DVD player. This won't do at all! Tick Tocks, go to work.'

They charge at Switchy, crawling all over him.

‘How do you change the time on this thing?' asks Stop Watch.

‘Is there a remote control?' Grandfather Clock frowns.

‘Maybe there's an instruction manual,' suggests Fobwatch.

‘Go,' I yell, and we charge. Cannonball isn't trying to fly so he actually makes it to them, swinging a huge punch that catches Designer Watch on the side of the head and sends him spinning to the other side of the roof.

Torch has his finger alight and is waving it in front of Alarm Clock, who looks more confused than scared.

Liarbird crouches down beside Fobwatch and says, ‘If you press that button, it will change the clock.'

He presses the button and Switchy's disc eject knocks him – POW! – clean across the roof.

‘Nice one, Liarbird,' I say, grinning, and turn my attention to TimeZone himself. It occurs to me that the OK Team is almost winning. Our first battle against a genuine villain, with henchmen and everything, and we are doing pretty well. The very thought of it is so satisfying I feel my body become more or less solid, and that's when TimeZone punches me.

I have never been hit so hard. It's like being hit by a sledgehammer and my whole stomach feels like it's turned inside out. The force of the blow lifts me into the air and to the very edge of the roof. I sway for a moment, trying to get my balance, still in shock from being actually punched.

‘Cannonball!' yells Liarbird, looking at me in horror, and I just have time to think stupidly that it's cool she obviously cares before I topple off the side.

The fall is unimaginably far. Fifteen storeys is a long way down, I think, as I plummet towards the road, far below.

Of course, the fright sends my entire body completely out of whack to the point that I am invisible, and I feel myself slow in the air as my body mass disappears. Now I'm floating – a bunch of disconnected atoms drifting through space – and it occurs to me that if I could stay like that, I wouldn't actually hit the ground. In fact, if I could do this deliberately, I could fly.

The thought of choosing to fly is so empowering that I become solid again and fall fast. There are now about nine storeys between me and the hard tarmac and concrete below. And that's when Switchy falls past me. I find out later that Grandfather Clock and Fobwatch got tired of trying to change his DVD clock display and instead attacked him with pieces of timber. Switchy managed to change into his Genuine Hero form, which had them cowering, but then accidentally switched again, into a small duck. They lunged at him and, in trying to get out of their way, he fell off the roof.

As he falls past me, he begins to switch desperately, but only manages to turn into a piano, then a bowling ball, and then a giant hammer. By the time he hits the footpath, he is an anvil, like in the cartoons, and leaves a hole where he lands. Ouch.

Of course, that is enough to freak me right out and, with one storey to go and falling unimaginably fast, my body whacks out again. I fall straight
through
the ground, somehow passing through concrete and pipes and tiling before landing heavily on the platform of an underground train station.

Dazed and confused, I stagger to a bench and sit for a few seconds. Then I walk over to the turnstiles leading to the escalators and to street level. A railway official looks suspiciously at my silver cargo pants, T-shirt and, most of all, my cape, eyes narrowing.

‘Where's your ticket, son?' he asks.

‘I didn't catch the train,' I say. ‘I, um, just fell into the station.'

‘Of course you did. Young punks, think you can ride for free around the city. Do you have a ticket or not?'

‘I didn't catch the train,' I repeat.

He pulls an official-looking book out of his back pocket. ‘The fine for riding without the correct fare is one hundred dollars, kid. There goes your pocket money.'

CHAPTER 24
EXILE

I
find the team down an alley, slumped in groups. ‘All you had to do was stay a duck,' Mr Fabulous is ranting to Switchy, who sports a large white bandage around his head and looks a little glassy-eyed. ‘Ducks can fly, you idiot. Why couldn't you stay a duck?'

He turns on Yesterday. ‘Afraid of heights? How can a superhero be afraid of heights? And why didn't you foresee that it would be a problem, psychic girl? You were pathetic!'

Yesterday starts to cry, but he has already moved on to Liarbird.

‘Nice move with the DVD eject, but other than that, you were hopeless, Liarbird. You've got to learn to throw a punch. That's the most honest thing there is. A knuckle sandwich!'

‘I'm heavyweight champion of the world,' she says miserably.

Cannonball is standing to one side. ‘How'd I go, coach? Was I better than a sandwich in a toaster?'

‘You weren't bad, Cannonball,' Mr Fabulous admits, patting Cannonball on the back. ‘Sure, it was a lucky break when you tried to fly straight at Alarm Clock and accidentally took out TimeZone instead, but I guess that was the point of the exercise.'

Torch is hanging his head, unable to look anybody in the eye. ‘I was crap, wasn't I, sir?'

‘You'll get better, Torch. Hang in there, kid.'

Torch shuffles his feet. ‘It was an honour to see you in action, sir. You took out all five Tick Tocks.'

‘Just like the old days. I've still got it every now and then.' Mr Fabulous stands a little taller than usual. Then he sees me.

‘Look everybody, the fearless leader returns! And where exactly have you been?'

‘I fell into the underground station,' I say, and they all stare. As proof, I hold up a slip of paper. ‘I got fined for not having the correct ticket.'

I catch Cannonball's eye and he starts to laugh.

Torch and Yesterday start to laugh as well. Even Switchy, looking groggy, manages a grin.

Mr Fabulous opens and closes his mouth and finally just shakes his head in disbelief.

Only Liarbird isn't laughing. As the others are doubled over in hysterics, she comes over and unexpectedly wraps her arms around me. Squeezing tightly, she says softly, ‘I wasn't worried. I didn't think you were dead.'

Then she lets me go, looking embarrassed.

I turn my back on everyone and adjust my silver shoe, blushing furiously. But I'm also humiliated that the rest of the team laughed at me. I've let them all down.

I feel Mr Fabulous's eyes on me. Maybe it's the remnants of his X-ray vision?

‘Hey kid,' he says.

‘It's Focus, Mr Fabulous.' Even I hear the edge in my voice.

‘Sir,' he says.

‘There's no need to call me “sir”,' I reply. ‘Focus is fine.'

Yes, I'm in a mood. So sue me.

He looks at me for the longest time. ‘I wasn't calling you “sir”, you moron. I was saying that you should call me “sir”.'

‘Oh really?,' I say.

‘Yes, really. And it's: Really, sir.'

I don't know where this is going. In fact, I feel like I'm walking on a thin roof, so I need to tread warily. I quietly turn away.

‘Hey kid.'

He is still talking to me.

‘Yes, Mr Fabulous? Sir?'

He seems to miss the sarcasm. ‘Clean my cape.'

‘What?'

‘Are you deaf as well as stupid? I said clean my cape. It got grease spilt on it during the battle with the Tick Tocks.'

I can't help myself. I'm furious. ‘I didn't become a superhero to clean people's capes.'

‘Well, I didn't come all the way to Australia to listen to hissy fits from a human cloud. You want to be in this team, learn some humility. The only thing super about you, kid, is the size of your ego.'

‘Mr Fabulous!'

‘Sir.'

I try to take a deep breath. I'm suddenly aware of the rest of the team watching this exchange, open-mouthed, like it is a tennis match between a penguin and a ghost. Or something unusual. You know.

Me? I'm trying hard not to cry. That would be very un-super.

‘Mr Fabulous, sir . . . all I'm trying to do is improve. For example, I'd like to talk to you about leadership. I know you weren't ever part of a team, apart from occasionally helping out the Really Heroic Heroes of America, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on how I could be better at –'

He waves a gloved hand in dismissal. ‘You're no longer leading the team, son. Torch is.'

‘Excuse me?'

‘Torch?' says Cannonball, before a glare from Mr Fabulous shuts him up.

I see spots. ‘But what do you mean? I'm the leader. This is my team!'

‘Not any more. The way I see it, if you really believe in the team, then you'll be happy to play the best role you can for that team, and that's not leader.'

‘Says who?'

‘Says me, kid.' His voice rises dangerously. ‘The guy who's in the Hall of Fame and has flown halfway around the world to lick you bums into shape. I don't think it's healthy for this team to have a guy who can't even keep himself in focus as their leader. Have you thought about the symbolism of that? The fact that every time you go into battle, your sterling leadership is to practically disappear as soon as somebody looks like throwing a punch? Torch is the new boss.'