Free Superpowers by Alex Cliff

PUFFIN BOOKS
    SUPER POWERS
    THE SNARLING BEAST
    Books by Alex Cliff
SUPERPOWERS series
SUPER POWERS
    THE SNARLING BEAST

    ALEX CLIFF
    ILLUSTRATED BY LEO HARTAS

    PUFFIN
    PUFFIN BOOKS
    Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park,
New Delhi – 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
    Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL , England
    puffinbooks.com
    Published 2007
1
    Text copyright © Alex Cliff, 2007
Illustrations copyright © Leo Hartas, 2007
All rights reserved
    The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
    EISBN: 978–0–141–90243–2
    For Lindsey Heaven, my wonderful editor,
and for Philippa Milnes-Smith, my equally
wonderful agent, for not laughing at me
(well, OK, not too much!) when I first suggested
I’d like to write a series about superpowers…
CONTENTS
Just imagine…
One Stone, Paper, Scissors
Two Which Superpower?
Three Keep Out!
Four Tomb Raider!
Five Max’s Plan
Six Risking the Riddle
Seven The Cherub’s Trumpet
Eight Petrified!
JUST IMAGINE…
    a hawk swooping towards a ruined castle on a hill. With a savage scream, the bird flies into the castle keep. As it lands beside the one tower that is still standing, its body starts to stretch and grow. Within seconds it has become a woman. She is twice as tall as an ordinary woman and a cloak of brown-grey feathers swirls from hershoulders. Her black eyes flash with angry fire.
    She claps her hands together and a square of stones on the inner wall of the tower crumbles.
    As the dust clears, a tall man with long hair and a noble face looks out

    through the gap. He is trapped inside the tower’s thick walls. This is the superhero Hercules. He meets the evil goddess’s angry gaze without flinching. ‘Another day dawns, Juno,’ he says. ‘By the end of today I will have my sixth superpower back.’
    â€˜No!’ Juno hisses.
    â€˜Yes,’ Hercules snaps back. ‘For five days now you have set the two human boys a task to do each day. Each day they have won a superpower back for me. Soon I will have all my powers back and you will not be able to keep me as your prisoner any longer. I will break free from these walls!’ He thumps the inside of the tower with both fists.
    â€˜Never!’ Juno exclaims. ‘I will kill the boys first.’

    â€˜You cannot!’ Hercules’ voice raps out. ‘You made a deal with them, Juno. The boys are allowed to choose one of my superpowers each day to help them complete a task you set. If they succeed the superpower returns to me. You know as well as I, that although theboys can be hurt or killed while carrying out the task, you must
not
injure them directly. You cannot break the rules, Juno. Gods play fair when they deal with humans.’
    â€˜You dare to tell
me
what gods do?’ Juno cries in outrage.
    â€˜Yes,’ Hercules declares.
    They stare at each other, superhero and evil goddess. They have been enemies for centuries.
    â€˜It is true!’ Juno spits. ‘I might not be able to kill the boys myself while we have a deal, but I can make the task they have to complete as dangerous as I like.’ Her eyes light up suddenly.