Superpower Showdown Read online

  I still can’t get my head round the fact that he’s been working for Darek Vermore all this time. It made a lot of sense though, when I really thought about it. Mr Mercury may be a master of disguise, but he was never going to be the brains of the operation.

  That’s what makes his latest steal all the stranger.

  That day in Buckingham Palace, the day we got our medals, Joe revealed himself to be Mr Mercury wearing a blond wig, prosthetic chin, nose and forehead, and took off with the Imperial State Crown.

  A crown that is a lot more precious than anybody realizes.

  “We haven’t found Mr Mercury yet, but he can’t hide for ever,” Nanny Beam replied, getting in next to me and pulling her phone out of her pocket. “I’ll just text your mother and let her know that I’m borrowing you for an hour or so.”

  “Where are we going? Buckingham Palace?”

  “Her Majesty thought a little outing would be a lot more fun. The Queen has got a very adventurous spirit. And, since she found out that Mr Mercury had been posing as one of her butlers for rather a long time, she’s not entirely sure who to trust in the palace. We thought it would be better to chat somewhere else.”

  “So, how come she wants to see me?” I asked.

  “She wants to discuss what happened at the medal ceremony with you properly. She realizes that because it was Christmas and she had a rather hectic schedule, we never got a chance to sit down, just us three, and go through everything. She wants to see how you are.”

  “That’s nice of her,” I said, glancing down at my sequin jacket. “Do you think she’ll mind that I haven’t exactly dressed knowing I was meeting the Queen today?”

  Nanny Beam smiled. “Trust me, she’ll think you look fantastic.”

  As the car sped towards London from our village in Hertfordshire, my stomach filled with butterflies at the idea of seeing the Queen again. Nanny Beam changed the subject to the fashion show and asked after the Bright Sparks, before telling me all about her alpacas and how each one was doing. Nanny Beam lives in a cottage in Cornwall and has dozens of rescue animals there, including chickens that wander freely about the house. If you stay in the guest room, you often wake up to find one sitting on your chest, peering curiously at you and clucking away.

  By the time we reached central London, Nanny Beam had gone through every animal on her farm and made me laugh so much by recounting how one of her alpacas stowed away in the postman’s delivery van that I had almost forgotten why I was in the car.

  The nerves came flooding back when the car came to a stop and Nanny Beam said, “Ah we’re here. The Queen is already waiting for us.”

  One of the serious-looking agents opened the door for me and I stepped out into a busy tourist spot.

  “Hyde Park!” I exclaimed, dodging out the way of someone coming past on a skateboard.

  “Yes,” Nanny Beam said, gesturing for me to follow her. “This way!”

  “I thought we’d be going somewhere private,” I said, falling into step alongside her. “This is one of the busiest places in the city.”

  “You should see it in the summer. It is a lot busier then; this is rather quiet for Hyde Park. Besides, you’ll often find that the busier the place, the more private it can be.”

  Nanny Beam came to a stop at the Serpentine Lake in the middle of the park.

  “Fancy a pedalo ride?” she asked cheerily.

  “Um, no thanks, we shouldn’t really keep the Queen waiting,” I said, looking at her as though she was mad. “And look at the sign. Boating on the Serpentine doesn’t open until April.”

  She glanced at someone over my shoulder, a smile creeping across her face. I turned to see a pedalo bobbing on the water with the Queen sitting in it, wearing a warm coat and sunglasses.

  “Hello, Aurora!” She waved, before checking her headscarf was in place. “Won’t you join me? Love your jacket by the way!”

  My mouth dropped to the floor.

  “We pulled a few strings. Now, like you said,” Nanny Beam chuckled, prodding me in the back, “you shouldn’t really keep the Queen waiting.”

  “Aren’t you coming?” I asked Nanny Beam, still staring at the lone pedalo and the Queen looking absolutely delighted to be in it.

  “There’s only room for two in each pedalo. Go and have a good chat; I have some work to do. I’ll be here after you’ve been for a spin around the lake.”

  She ushered me towards the water and, after I greeted the Queen with a very wobbly curtsey, one of the agents helped me to climb into the pedalo without tipping it over and causing the Queen to fall into the Serpentine. I could see the potential headlines the next day: LIGHTNING GIRL ALMOST CAUSES QUEEN TO DROWN IN PEDALO SCANDAL!

  “Isn’t this wonderful?” the Queen said, once I was in. “Let’s go!”

  As she began to pedal and I followed suit, the pedalo moved away from the dock (where Nanny Beam and her agents were attempting to blend in with the tourists) and into the middle of the lake.

  “I thought this would be the best way to get some privacy,” the Queen said, gesturing to the lake. “And I rarely get the chance to do things like this. It’s rather a lovely treat.”

  “You’re very good at pedalling, Your Majesty,” I wheezed, trying to keep up with her pace.

  The Queen looked completely serene. She hadn’t even broken a sweat. She must do a lot of spinning classes at Buckingham Palace or something.

  “Patricia … sorry, your Nanny Beam, tells me that you’re finding it hard to concentrate at school?” the Queen said breezily.

  Brilliant. When other kids have school issues, they get snitched on to their parents. When I fall short, I get snitched on to the QUEEN.

  This superhero business isn’t easy.

  “It’s difficult knowing Mr Mercury still hasn’t been found,” I reasoned.

  She stopped pedalling, so that we could just bob in the middle of the lake for a bit.

  “Yes, I know what you mean. I’ve been finding it difficult to concentrate on anything else, too. We have to trust Nanny Beam and her team to track down Mr Mercury and the Jewel of Truth and Nobility.”

  As she said the last bit, a shadow fell across her face. She looked tired and sad.

  Only a handful of people in the world know that the octagonal St Edward’s Sapphire set in the diamond cross at the top of the Imperial State Crown isn’t just any sapphire. According to legend there are four precious stones in existence, each with their own powers. The Light of the World, the Jewel of Truth and Nobility, the Gem of Wisdom and Peace, and the Heart of Love.

  The sapphire in the Imperial State Crown is the Jewel of Truth and Nobility. The Queen is its guardian, just like every monarch of Britain has been throughout history. Just like I’m the guardian of the Light of the World.

  The Queen and Nanny Beam had told me this HUGE secret, just before Mr Mercury had stolen the crown from Buckingham Palace. They had thought that only they knew the true identity of the stone. But Darek had learned of its existence from his father before he died.

  “We’re going to get the Jewel of Truth and Nobility back, Your Majesty,” I said determinedly. “Back with you, where it belongs.”

  She gave me a warm smile. “I have no doubt. I can’t believe Mr Mercury was under my nose that whole time. I feel so silly.”

  “We have all been fooled by Mr Mercury,” I assured her, remembering when he had been in disguise as sweet, bumbling personal assistant David Donnelly at the Superhero Conference, and I hadn’t had a clue.

  “What I want to know is why Mr Mercury stole the crown when Darek was already in prison by then. Whose orders was he acting on and does he know how precious the stone really is?” She let out a long sigh. “Nanny Beam and I discuss it a lot. Darek must have planted Mr Mercury at the palace to steal the precious stone for him, while he focused on extracting the powers from the Light of the World. And then, when Darek was arrested and their plan was foiled, did Mr Mercury decide to carry on with the scheme for himself? O
r is he planning on selling the crown to the highest bidder?”

  “Do you think Darek told him about the Jewel of Truth and Nobility, Your Majesty?”

  “Perhaps. Or maybe he worked out that it must be important, for Darek to risk so much to gain it. Darek isn’t saying a word.” She shook her head before looking up at me with a hopeful smile. “At least the Light of the World is safe.”

  “Mum has hidden it until we can return it to where it belongs,” I assured her. “Apparently it’s somewhere no one would think to look and it has a good alarm system. I have no idea but I’m guessing one of Nanny Beam’s secret underground lairs.”

  “And when you say you’ll return the Light of the World to where it belongs…”

  I’ll never forget the day Mum told me the Beam family legend, the same day I found out I had superpowers. Centuries ago, when the world was thrown into darkness, one of our ancestors, a young woman named Dawn, set off on a journey north to the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. She discovered a precious stone there, returned light to the world and gained its powers. Every Beam woman since Dawn has been given the powers of light to help the world.

  It was time the Light of the World should be returned to where it all began, where it would be safe: underneath the Aurora Borealis. I just had to find out exactly where in the frozen north my ancestor Dawn had discovered it.

  “When the Jewel of Truth and Nobility is back safe with us, I’ll return the Light of the World,” I explained, admiring a swan as it elegantly drifted past us. “I’m going to do everything I can to help Nanny Beam track down Mr Mercury. I won’t let him win.”

  The Queen gave me a knowing smile and reached into the handbag that was on her lap. She pulled out a familiar book. It was the book about precious stones that I had … ahem … borrowed from the Natural History Museum. It contained all the old legends and folklore about them. It was thanks to this book that I had come to learn that the Light of the World wasn’t the only precious stone with powers in existence.

  “Here, take this,” she said, passing the book to me. “Nanny Beam rescued it from Darek when he was arrested and loaned it to me to read. Various MI5 agents and scholars have been through it looking for clues as to what Darek had been planning to do next if he’d succeeded in extracting the powers from the Light of the World. They hoped that might help them work out what Mr Mercury’s plans may be.”

  “They didn’t find anything?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing. That’s why I’m giving it to you. I want you to have another look at it. You and your friends, the Bright Sparks, have always been good at thinking outside the box. Maybe you’ll see something they missed.”

  “Of course,” I said, clutching the book tightly. “Although it will be difficult to ask the Bright Sparks to help when they don’t know what the sapphire really is. They think it’s terrible that Mr Mercury has stolen the crown, but they have no idea what’s at stake.”

  I hated lying to the Bright Sparks, but it was the best way to protect them. After Mr Mercury took the crown, Nanny Beam and I talked about whether we should reveal the truth about the precious stones to them, but we realized that telling them how important the stones really are would put all of them in great danger. And I couldn’t do that to my friends. I couldn’t risk them being a part of something so dangerous. The fewer people who know, the fewer Mr Mercury can get to.

  There was only one person we decided needed to know the whole truth: Mum.

  Nanny Beam and I went for dinner with her one evening after Christmas and told her everything. It took her a while to get her head around it all, but I’m glad we told her. It makes me feel a little less alone in all of this.

  “Yes, it is difficult hiding something so important from your close friends.” The Queen nodded thoughtfully. “I know how you feel. But at least we have each other and Nanny Beam.”

  “That’s true.”

  I smiled up at her and we sat in silence for a moment, bobbing peacefully in the middle of the lake.

  “I suppose we had better start pedalling back,” the Queen said eventually. “Your grandmother will want to get you home before dark.”

  “Thanks for the book. And for taking the time to talk with me, Your Majesty. I really appreciate it.”

  “Thank you for all your help,” she said, her eyes twinkling at me as she started to pedal back towards shore. “Lightning Girl, the world needs you once again.”

  3

  As soon as I walked through the door, Kimmy jumped up and sent me flying backwards.

  “Hey, Kimmy!” I giggled. “I missed you, too!”

  I couldn’t stop laughing as my German Shepherd pinned me to the ground with her big paws and covered my face in slobbery licks. My whole family is convinced that dogs can truly sense when something is up, because Kimmy has been much more protective of me ever since I found out I had superpowers. When I’m home, she barely leaves my side and she’s even started creeping up to my bedroom in the night, opening the door – which she has recently worked out how to do (Kizzy told me German Shepherds are super intelligent) – and settling down to sleep curled up at the side of my bed.

  At first, when he learned of this new habit of hers, Dad kept trying to “lay down some ground rules” and told me that when I heard her come into the bedroom, I was to tell her no and take her back downstairs to her bed. But the two times that I did that, she just came right back up again, so we gave up. I’m secretly happy that she insisted on her new bedtime routine. I like knowing she’s right there, beside me.

  “I thought that commotion must be you arriving home,” Mum said, coming into the hallway and smiling when she saw Kimmy standing over me. “Kimmy’s been going to look out of the window for your return every five minutes.”

  “She’s my protector, aren’t you, Kimmy?”

  Kimmy barked happily and gave me another slobbery lick.

  “Come and get some food; you must be hungry after today. Unless you ate with Nanny Beam?”

  “Nope, I’m starving,” I said, scrambling to my feet. “I’ll just be one minute.”

  As Mum went back to the others, I ran upstairs, Kimmy at my heels, and tucked the precious-stone book safely under my pillow. If Dad knew I had it, he might want it back, considering it technically belonged to him and the Natural History Museum. He was a Professor of Minerology there and had kept it in his office for research purposes. I would give it back to him eventually, but not yet.

  I shut my bedroom door and headed back downstairs to the kitchen.

  “Our big fashion star is home!” Mum announced, putting an arm round me and squeezing me close as I came through the door.

  “Aurora!” Dad beamed, coming over to give me a big hug. “I am so proud of you! You were wonderful up there.”

  “Well done for not falling over flat on your face.” Alexis grinned from the table, digging into what I imagined was at least his second helping of vegetable lasagne.

  “Did Georgie really design this herself?” Clara asked, so mesmerized by the sequins on my jacket that she reached out to touch the sleeve and lost the page of the book she was reading. “It’s very glamorous.”

  “Want to try it on?”

  I shrugged the Lightning Girl jacket off and draped it over Clara’s shoulders. She walked around the kitchen, swishing it about and making us all laugh. The sequins kept catching the light and Kimmy began chasing the resulting funny dots that appeared every now and then on the walls and floor.

  “You know, wearing something like this makes me think that Coco Chanel really had a point when she said ‘Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening’,” Clara quoted thoughtfully. “This jacket isn’t just a jacket. It really means something. I might write a paper on that theory when I find a free moment. It would be interesting to branch away from science and get an insight into the world of fashion.”

  “Always good to try something new,” Dad agreed, smiling warmly at her.

  “Clara, does i
t ever occur to you that you’re eight years old?” Alexis laughed, ruffling her hair, much to her annoyance. “When you have a free moment, you should be, I don’t know” – he hesitated – “playing computer games or something.”

  Clara rolled her eyes. “How tempting, but I think I’ll leave the gaming to you.”

  Alexis grinned and went back to his food. I had to admit that my brother and sister were dauntingly high-achieving. Alexis was this big technology nerd who seemed to be able to hack or program anything. He spent most of his time at his computer and I’ve never seen him happier than when he was offered an internship at Vermore Enterprises, having discovered he was related to THE Darek Vermore, his icon.

  Obviously, that was before any of us knew that Darek Vermore was a bad guy trying to steal my powers.

  Alexis doesn’t like talking about what happened on the rooftop that day. When Darek comes up in conversation, Alexis’s expression darkens, and he looks very angry and sad at the same time. It wasn’t his fault at all, but he blamed himself for telling Darek Vermore what I had discovered in the book – that transferring the powers of the Light of the World was possible, but you needed the guardian to be present.

  Darek had convinced Alexis he wanted the information for good reasons, and why shouldn’t Alexis have believed him? Darek was working with Nanny Beam and MI5. He was on our side; a relation of the Beams who was looking out for his family after finally being reunited with them.

  I must have told Alexis that a hundred times over the Christmas holidays, but he wouldn’t listen. He kept shaking his head and saying that he put his little sister in danger, something he couldn’t forgive himself for. I told him that I could handle myself, but he said that as my big brother it was his job to worry.

  And, he added, to tease me for being a loser all the time.

  “So, where were you after the show, Lightning Girl?” Alexis asked as Dad put a plate of heated-up food in front of me on the kitchen table.

  Kimmy immediately came rushing over to sit next to me in case I needed any help eating it.