The Masked Men, Chapter 1

The Masked Men

Strength…
Courage…
Trust…
Loyalty…
And Power,
COMBINED

Book 1: The storm

Chapter 1

A thirteen-year old boy, in a rather large field below his house, was working with his brother and two friends. His name was Noah Swanson; his brother’s name was Drew, and his friends’ Henry and Louis Dimick. They were busy digging a large trench, from which they planned to make a large network of tunnels, which would stretch under most of the field. Drew leaned on his shovel and looked up. “Whoa, where did that come from?” he wonderd aloud. The rest of them looked up. Black clouds covered the sky, and about every half minute huge bursts of lightning flashed. “We need to get back to the house!” Noah yelled. “Yeah and fast, or else we might get hi-.” Henry’s warning was too late as a huge blast of lightning enveloped them.

Elsewhere, in a room resembling a dungeon, a strange figure stood adjusting some of the electronics inside an even stranger figure, much taller and more powerful than him. It was a dull gray, the arms and torso were muscular looking, and the legs, from the knees down, were rather cubic. “Mehehahaha….. Soon my creation will be finished, and then we’ll see who laughs at me. The most powerful creature in the world is now, The Electro-Maniac!” And as the strange man spoke, his creation stood.

Henry raised his head out of the trench. “It’s amazing that we survived,” he thought out loud. Noah, Drew, and Louis, groaned and sat up. “I’ll say,” said Noah, “although personally I feel as strong as ever. Maybe even stronger….” The others stared at him. “What?” he asked, then looked at himself. “Oh…” Noah’s muscles now made him resemble Super Man because of their size. Louis was in a rather deep part of the trench. He jumped as hard as he could, hoping to get out, but instead soared about ten feet higher, and hovered there. “Whoa!!!” he yelled in surprise. Henry suddenly did an incredible flip and landed on Louis, who had turned horizontal. “That was cool! I wonder what else- look out!” A van had zoomed up to the trench, and now its doors opened and several men wearing helmets with faceplates and carrying machineguns jumped out. “Don’t move,” one of them said, aiming his gun at Drew, who wasn’t standing very far away. All of a sudden Drew pounced forward with a roar and swiped at the gun. Razor sharp claws shot from his fingers, slicing the gun to pieces as the other boys leapt in to attack. One of the men brought up his gun to aim, when the magazine was obliterated by a powerful laser blast from Henry’s eyes. Noah gave an eerie howl shattering another man’s gun with a sonic blast and knocking him out with a punch. Louis was fighting very impressively, flying at high speed giving out kicks and also blows from huge, eagle like wings, which had suddenly appeared on his back. Just when it seemed that the boys were winning the fight, two more vans zoomed in, and other men jumped out. One of them lifted a weird looking gun and fired at Noah, who found himself suddenly frozen in a chunk of ice. Drew was next, and then Henry, who, before he was frozen, managed to see some sort of symbol on the side of the vans. Louis however was nowhere in sight.

When Henry regained conciseness he found himself still frozen. A single laser blast easily melted almost the entire chunk. Noah and the Drew were nearby but still frozen. He didn’t want to hurt them with his lasers, but he found that by widening the blast into a ray, he could melt the ice slowly, but safely. After that he took time to look around. They seemed to be in some sort of cell, its four walls appeared to be solid rock, with no door. A line of metal formed a rectangular outline on the wall opposite the tiny window. The window! For some reason an idea had entered his mind. Performing one of his spectacular leaps he grabbed hold of the window-sill and pulled himself up so he could see out. “Drew! Noah! Get up here fast! This could be bad. Really bad!” A huge robot-like machine was standing nearby. It was about ten feet tall, and covered with blue armor. 20 mm. machine guns were mounted on its shoulders and its cylinder shaped head only had one eye on the right side of its face. Acting on impulse, Henry fired a laser blast just close enough to graze its head. Almost immediately it turned and, as Henry had hoped, opened fire directly at the wall of the cell. It blew a sizable hole in the wall. Noah let loose with his sonic howl and stunned the robot. The three of them scrambled out through the hole. Free!