The Superpower Project Read Online Free PDF Page A

him. Both policemen and Cam lifted TJ, pushing him towards the doors and into the back seat. His legs were still hanging out the other side.
    â€œJust need to fold it up a bit,” said the tall policeman, grunting with effort.
    â€œCareful!” said Megan.
    With a terribly unpleasant shriek, TJ’s legs folded at the knee. The flakes of rust and clay that crumbled off them suggested it had been a long time since TJ had done squat jumps. He was folded, though, and inside the car.
    â€œDon’t forget seatbelts,” said the tall policeman.
    It was a short drive to Cam’s house, and the policemen were nice and chatty on the way, talking them through various recent crime statistics and their favourite types of biscuit. They even helped get TJ out of the car and into the garden shed, only banging his head on the door twice.
    Smiling, they drove off.
    â€œTJ are you ok?” said Megan, genuinely upset. “Did we break anything? Can you still move?”
    There was a brief silence, then the already familiar clicks and whirrs.
    â€œI am fine,” said TJ, “though I think my kneecap may still be in the car.”

Chapter 8.
Sound and Fury
    There was a strange high-pitched howling, a piercing shriek that shattered the silence of the early evening and suggested unspeakable horror was nearby. Startled birds flew off into the sky, dogs barked, babies burst into tears. And in Mr Finn’s house, one of the windows cracked and a teacup fell over.
    â€œHaha!” Mr Finn was so pleased he was almost jumping up and down. “Finally! Victory for the Chaos Trumpet!” But before he had finished celebrating, all the brass buttons fell off the top, and two of the pipes popped with a defeated wheeze. “Nooo!” he shouted, hurling the trumpet across the laboratory, where it bounced off a rubber skeleton and into a big bin full of broken ray guns.
    Mr Finn stopped and did some deep breathing, because that’s what his doctor had told him to do when he got too angry. Right before Mr Finn disintegrated him with a ray gun. Inventing was supposed to be his way to relax. When he wasn’t gritting his teeth being polite to annoying schoolchildren or shouting at Waterworx employees, Mr Finn liked to spend time turning useful household devices into dangerous weaponry. The Salsascope, the Microwump, the Smogmatronic – all really helpful for completing a variety of chores while destroying enemies.
    Mr Finn just could not understand why his genius had gone unrecognised. How could that little twerp think his remarkable Resilience sculpture was ‘jaggy’? Soon, though, everyone would know his name.
    ***
    Mr Finn’s laboratory was hidden beneath his huge house on the Esplanade, one of the few old parts of the town that had not been knocked down, mostly because it had all the really expensive houses in it. The big bay windows in these miniature mansions overlooked the river and the hills beyond.
    Every night for the last three months, ever since he had arrived in town with Waterworx, Mr Finn had come to the lab and continued working on his creations. Then, at eight o’clock, he would stop to patiently push the buttons on his father’s old Morse-code machine. Then he would wait to see if anything happened. Nothing ever did.
    Tonight, though, the machine answered back.
    Mr Finn was so surprised that he almost spilled his Earl Grey tea all over his radiation suit.
    The code he received was gibberish, just random letters. But it was working, and that could only mean one thing.
    â€œSomeone has reactivated TJ01,” said Mr Finn. “Finally!”
    Mr Finn allowed himself a little smile, mostly because no one was there to see it.
    â€œNow we can really get started.”

Chapter 9.
Code and Theory
    Miss McCue beamed at the class. Not a sunbeam, warm and pleasant, more a sort of laser beam, precise and piercing. “Today we begin researching and designing our very own