“That’s not normal lightning,” said Lucy.
The smoke cleared, the bitter scent of burnt metal permeating the area. Four human forms stood in each spot where the bolts had struck, their crimson hoods raised.
Milo strained to see them, slowly realising that each of their faces were familiar. Carlos Felina. Mrs Stricks. Alastair Chelon. Mandy Millepoids. Holy crum. It’s all of them. And they can travel through lightning. He swallowed. Who are these people?
“Milo!” Fisher called from behind the truck. “Get over here, quickly!”
Without a second thought, Milo obeyed. “Come on,” he urged Lucy. Tentatively, she followed.
Mr Fisher lifted the kids on to the heavy-duty truck bed and slammed the tailgate shut. “Stay here,” he ordered.
Milo backed against the window of the cab. Lucy watched the scene unfold, a shadow of worry on her face.
The security team had finally sorted themselves into formation, each crouched round the immobilised Thingus, their weapons pointed out at the ring of Pretenders.
“Fisher,” Carlos Felina purred, “this is your last chance.” The moustachioed weatherman stood four yards away from Milo and Lucy on the other side of the truck. “Release the young one.”
Fisher marched to the edge of Thingus’s crater, Murl at his side with his stun gun drawn. Milo wondered what his father would do to protect his men. What were these creatures, and what were they capable of?
“He’d better not hurt Thingus again,” Lucy hissed through her teeth.
Milo was struggling to wrap his brain round it all. Who was in the right? “The Pretenders need to back down,” he said. “They’re only making it worse.”
Lucy scowled. “Your dad’s goons are the ones who should back down.”
“The Pretenders shouldn’t have broken my father’s machines.”
“Your dad shouldn’t have kidnapped Thingus,” she snapped.
“No,” Milo agreed. “He shouldn’t.” Lucy was right. What his father had done was wrong, but Milo knew he thought he was doing it for the right reasons. It’s never okay to hurt anyone. Is it?
“We simply want things to return to they way they were, Fisher,” declared Mandy Millepoids, his tall silhouette clearly visible on the far side of the circle. “Don’t be a fool.”
“If you refuse to go, Richard,” said Mrs Stricks from across the way, “we cannot be held responsible for the fate that befalls you.”
Fisher turned to his companion. “Ready, Mr Murl.”
Murl pointed his weapon at Thingus, preparing to fire.
Milo felt like he might faint. Don’t do it, Dad. Please.
“All right,” said the Other Mrs Stricks. “Have it your way.” She snapped her fingers once more.
Each of the Pretenders’ eyes began to glow fiery orange.
What the—
“Agghh!” Murl threw his taser to the ground. “It’s hot!”
Squealing in turn, all the security operatives tossed their guns away, waving their scorched, steaming hands as their weapons sparked and fizzled in the mud, affected by some unseen force unleashed by the paranormal creatures around them.
“What is this?” said Fisher, looking around in alarm.
Another boom rang out as a bolt of lightning shot down from the clear sky and struck Thingus, who vanished in a burst of sound and smoke. Murl and Fisher were thrown by the force of the blast, colliding violently with the men around them.
“Dad!” Milo watched his father stagger to his feet.
A low hum emanated throughout the clearing as the Pretenders chanted in unison in an unrecognisable tongue, their eyes shining brighter and brighter in a dynamic spectrum of colour, turning yellow, then blue, then violet. The ground began to shake.
“What’s happening?” Milo asked.
For once Lucy didn’t have an answer. She gripped the truck’s tailgate, fear in her eyes.
The truck jolted and Milo fell painfully to his knees. A puff of smoke burst from under the hood as the motor overheated, presumably caused by the same force that had felled the drones and the high-tech weaponry. Milo had never dreamed that such terrifying power was possible.
He scanned the chaotic scene of prostrate security men. His father was standing at the centre of it all, looking remarkably unconcerned. In fact, he was laughing.
“Dad, you have to get out of there!” Milo yelled.
Mr Fisher reached into his pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie. “Unit Two,” he commanded, “let’s show them what we’ve got. Go!”
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
Shot after ear-splitting shot was fired as the Pretenders were peppered with large syringe-like darts filled with a shimmering sky-blue liquid. Substance Nu-791. Howling in pain and fear, their eyes stopped glowing and the earth’s shaking subsided.
Milo peered over at Carlos Felina. Or what was left of him. The floundering weatherman, three yards away and covered in darts, no longer appeared human. His shape stretched and sagged. His skin glowed like the moonlight. It almost looked like he was melting, except he was growing larger instead.
The wails of the Pretenders echoed around the orchard, as each of them morphed hideously into an endless array of unearthly forms. Two giant beasts made of glimmering goo lumbered towards one other – was it Kenzo and Marietta Corbin? They collided in a twisted embrace, their bodies fusing together, their swollen, misshapen mouths howling piteously at either side.
Mr Fisher gazed upon his handiwork with excited uncertainty.
Dad, what have you done? thought Milo.
The unnerved security squad gaped at the scene around them. One of the men vomited in the mud.
“Get the nets!” Mr Fisher shouted into his walkie-talkie. He jogged over to the pickup truck.
“It’s over,” said Fisher. “The two of you need to get back home befo—” He lurched forward as the ground shook violently once again.
Milo and Lucy clung to one another to keep from falling.
Fisher scrambled to his feet, unsteady as the quakes continued. “It’s not possible. How?”
Milo became aware of a strange cicada-like chittering rising from the forest across the clearing. He whipped round. There, rising up through the trees in a wave of fluttering sound that washed over the sky, were eyes. Dozens of violet glowing eyes.
Lucy started to laugh, although Milo wasn’t sure what was funny.
“He thought the Pretenders were all people.” She seemed hardly able to catch her breath.
