Fall of Heroes Read Online Free PDF

supported her back. She smiled beneath her oversized black sunglasses and leaped gracefully off her transportation once they were close to the ground. The helicopter, which must have been waiting for them to land, flew away.
    Alex’s family was reunited. Father and mother and son. His pulse thumped in his head. He felt like years had passed since he’d seen his parents, but at the same time, like it had been yesterday.
    â€œMy, my,” Shade said, smiling. “If I’d known that all we had to do was become Rangers to get you to come out of hiding, I would have arranged it sooner.”
    â€œYou are not Rangers,” Kyle spat.
    There was a flippancy to his mother that Alex had never seen before, even with all of them standing there facing her, ready to fight her. She acted as though she didn’t have a care in the world—that she had everything figured out.
    It made Alex nervous, as her happiness tended to do. He grimaced.
    â€œMy darling boy,” she said, ignoring Kyle. “Why do you look so sad? Could it be that you’re not as glad to see me as I am to see you?”
    Shade smiled. It was an altogether different smile from the one he’d seen in the poster of her not fifteen minutes earlier. There was something scary about this one. Alex had seen a few movies and read a few books about families who were reunited after long periods apart. They were always sobbing and hugging, professing their love and happiness to one another. Months ago, he might have thought such displays were signs of weakness, but now he felt angry that this wasn’t the case for him and his family. Angry, and sad.
    â€œThe last time I saw you,” Alex said slowly, “you left me and my friends in a crumbling building to die.”
    â€œBut you didn’t ,” Shade said. “And in my defense, it was your telekinetic blast that brought down Justice Tower. What I can’t figure out is what you’re doing here now. If you’re hoping to have some sort of revelation for the media about what’s really going on around here, I’m afraid we’ve got all that covered. You’re all wanted criminals, after all. As we speak, half of our Deputies are surrounding the front of the building.”
    â€œAren’t those untrained idiots the kind of people you always told us we should never think twice about?” Mallory asked.
    â€œEveryone serves a purpose,” Shade said. “Everyone can be used for—”
    â€œFor the glory,” Alex said, finishing her sentence. “Yeah, we’ve all heard it.”
    â€œPhoton,” Kyle shouted. The man turned to stare at Kyle. There was a brief moment of confusion on his face, and then Shade’s eyes went silver and the man stood upright, ready for her command.
    â€œOh, I see,” Shade said. “You thought that if he saw you, he might turn against me. I can assure you that’s not how this works. Photon’s my little magnetic puppet for the foreseeable future. Until we don’t need him anymore.” She shifted her gaze between Kyle and Kirbie, and lowered her voice. “Just between you and me, I can see the allure of this hero stuff. All the fawning and worship. But then, we’ll have plenty of that once Cloak takes over as well.”
    â€œThey only follow you because they don’t know who you really are,” Kirbie said.
    â€œThat’s the trick to all celebrity, isn’t it? That’s power , little girl.” Shade narrowed her eyes. “And that’s all that matters.”
    â€œTake them alive,” Volt said flatly.
    Everyone moved at once.
    Titan barreled toward Alex, but the roots of the nearby tree shot up from the ground, tripping him. Before the metal boy could pick himself back up, the tree was growing and bending, and its branches wrapped around him and held him high in the air. Titan thrashed, but off the ground he had no leverage, and every snapped