Chad!
I never thought I'd actually be pleased to see him. The others appeared behind him.
Brodie looked around at the devastation. 'We leave you alone for five minutes…' she started.
Twelve was dazed, but already climbing to his feet.
'We need to move this fight out of here,' I said.
I peered up at the roof where the VTOL aircraft departed. Dan was one step ahead of me. He used his power to reef the roof apart, and I built a flying ramp to take us through the gap. No sooner were we through than a bolt of ice sailed past us. We landed on the ground outside.
'What's going on?' Chad asked. 'How did all this start?'
I gave them the short version. 'Twelve's got all our powers and then some,' I explained. 'I'm not sure how we can stop him.'
'Don't forget we've got something he hasn't,' Brodie said.
'Which is?'
'Experience,' she said. 'Thanks to the last few weeks, we know how to control our powers. Twelve doesn't. He almost blew himself up with that last blast of fire.'
Something came flying out through the gap in the ground. It sailed over our heads and crashed into the soft earth about twenty feet behind us. It was a tank that had been parked at the rear of the cavern.
'How much of that juice did he drink?' Dan asked.
Twelve flew through the opening and landed awkwardly before us.
'You children are finished!' he snarled.
'Hey, Twelve!' Ebony yelled. 'Get some new lines! You sound like you're out of some bad comic book!'
We looked at Ebony with new respect.
'You go, girl!' Brodie said.
Twelve levitated some metal debris and swung it about like a child with a toy. Brodie leaped out of the way, but Dan wasn't so lucky. It caught his leg a glancing blow and knocked him flying.
Chad dragged him away.
'I think my foot is broken,' Dan groaned.
We needed to coordinate our efforts. It was too late to formulate a plan, so we needed something simple. Something we already knew. An idea came to me in a flash.
'The island!' I yelled. 'The same as the island.'
Chad nodded. Stumbling away from us, Dan raised a piece of metallic debris. He used it as a shield as Chad fired alternating bursts of fire and ice at Twelve. I gathered up Brodie and Ebony, and we took up position behind the alien. The boys had created a diversion.
Now we had to stop Twelve—permanently.
'I can get his attention,' Brodie said.
'Will I make a hole?' Ebony asked.
'Yes,' I told her. 'We just need to get Twelve into it.'
Brodie snatched up a piece of debris, a thin shaft of metal, and hefted it experimentally in her right arm.
'I'm ready when you are,' she said.
'Hey, Twelve!' I yelled.
Twelve swung around as Brodie flung the makeshift javelin with all her might. It struck the alien across the eyes. He flinched but didn't fall. At the same moment, Ebony dropped to her knees, forming a hole, thirty feet across and twenty feet deep, under the alien. He toppled into the pit. I used my power to lift the tank into the air. It hovered over the hole.
'Chad!' I screamed.
He understood. As I dropped the tank, Chad directed a fiery blast at the metal. It transformed into a molten liquid and slopped into the bottom of the pit. There was a single, brief scream from below us that ended in a horrible silence.
We hesitantly made our way to the edge. The metal was still cooling, but at the center of the molten liquid stood the figure of a man. He looked like an ancient heroic figure with his arms flung out wide.
'He said there would be a statue,' I mused. 'I don't think that's what he meant.'