Superpowers Read Online Free PDF Page B

stone, but he wasn’t going to let Cerberus savage him. ‘Get away from Fin! Get back!’ he yelled, picking up some bricks from the ground andchucking them as hard as he could at the beast. His throws fell short.
    Cerberus raced at the bricks, grabbing them in his mouth and crunching them up as if Max was throwing bones for him. Finally one made contact with one of his heads. He lunged furiously at Max.
    There was a grating sound of metal on stone and one of the rings pulled free from the plinth. Max gasped in alarm. The two remaining rings holding the dog creaked alarmingly. If they gave way too then Cerberus would be free…
    Max raced back to the shed for safety. What was he going to do? Fin was turned to stone. Cerberus was about to break his chains. There was no one to help.
    Hercules’ voice suddenly seemed to echo in Max ear.
Remember, even if all seems lost there will always be a way out if you look hard enough.
    I’m looking
, thought Max desperately.
I’m looking really hard!
    His eyes fell on a piece of paper on the floor. The riddle! He’d dropped it when Finlay had turned to stone. He picked it up.
    If only Fin had listened to him and not grabbed the earth apple. The riddle had said that the element to leave stood alone and was in the grassy square. Well, fire, water and air couldn’t stand anywhere – but things of stone did, and the stone statue of Cerberus had stood in the grassy square. The one they had to leave wasearth –
stone which comes from earth
; the rest of the riddle had just been a trick to distract them, like he’d thought.
    He looked at the riddle. A line suddenly seemed to jump out at him:
If you choose wrongly, mark these words…
    Max’s breath caught in his throat. Finlay
had
chosen wrongly. Maybe the riddle would tell him what to do to turn Finlay back!
    â€˜
If you choose wrongly, mark these words
,’ he read out. ‘
Two elements may break a third. The water from the cherub’s breath, can split the stone and save from death
.’
    Max glanced out of the shed towards the bronze statue of the cherub. As he looked at the cherub’s trumpet, his eyes suddenly widened. The trumpet! The cherubwas blowing out through it! Maybe ‘
water from the cherub’s breath
’ meant the water that came out of the trumpet when the trick fountain was triggered.
    Suddenly everything seemed to click into place in his brain. If he could get the fountain to spray on Finlay then maybe the magic would be reversed. The only problem was how did he start the fountain? He ran to the door of the shed.
    Cerberus was hurling his weight against the two remaining chains, desperate to tear the flesh from Max’s bones. With a grating crunch the second ring gave way.
    Now there was just one chain and ring holding the beast! Fear floodedthrough Max. How soon before that gave way too…
    I have to get that fountain spouting
, he thought frantically. But there was no way he could get past the dog to the flagstones. If only there was someone else to help him. But it was just him and the dog…
    The dog!
    An idea exploded into Max’s mind. Suddenly remembering how Cerberus had chased after the bricks he’d chucked at him, he grabbed a brick from the floor and threw it towards the flagstones. It fell short, but with a snarl Cerberus chased after it and grabbed it in his teeth.
    Max grabbed another brick. This time his arm snapped back and he let thebrick go with all the strength he could muster. The brick sailed through the air and landed right on the third flagstone.
    The dog leapt straight on to the flagstone after it. The second its weight hit the stone, a jet of water shot straight up into the air. It started raining down on the grassy square. It fell on the dog and the grass – and Fin!
    Crack!
    Max’s heart leapt. Splits started spreading from the top of Fin’s head and his fingers, spreading all the way to his toes.