Free The Superpower Project by Paul Bristow Page A

said. “We have landed on top of the robot.”
    There was a low growl, which Megan assumed meant that Cam was at least alive. Taking TJ’s arm, she hauled him up, one handed, towards the top of the broken stairway.
    The dust was beginning to settle, and now Megan could more clearly see a gorilla sitting on the giant legs of Chronos. The robot was struggling, its arms trapped beneath the stairway’s broken banister. Its clock hands were whirring angrily around its face.
    â€œCam, you need to jump up!” shouted Megan. “Hurry, before it gets free. TJ and I will help you.”
    Cam leaped up towards the broken top edge of the stairs, and gripped it hard, but it crumbled under his weight. Megan knew she would struggle to lift a gorilla, plus she was still holding the coin tightly in her other hand.
    Chronos was beginning to get up, scrambling around the banister which had been holding it down. It swiped and grabbed at Cam’s dangling feet.
    There was only one thing Megan could do. She threw her hands out for gorilla-Cam, but in doing so she dropped the coin. She and TJ each grabbed one of Cam’s massive gorilla arms and pulled, dragging him back up to the top floor just as Chronos finally managed to snap the banister in two.
    Chronos stopped for a moment, picked up the fallen coin, then continued lumbering up towards them.
    â€œThe coin!” said Megan, somehow hoping they’d be able to snatch it back. But Cam was too exhausted to move, panting as he turned back into his human form.
    TJ turned to them. “There is no time. Hold on.” He lifted them both and ran straight for the stained-glass window. The rotten wood around the old glass gave way easily as TJ smashed through it.
    Megan and Cam both screamed as the three of them fell towards the ground.
    TJ landed heavily on his feet, aged springs creaking. He let go of Megan and Cam and shouted, “Run!”
    The three of them stumbled up the slippery hill back towards the torn hole in the fence. Megan turned only once, to see Chronos staring at them through the broken window, its clock face glowing eerily in the dark.

Chapter 18.
Old and New
    Mr Finn’s favourite way to relax was to tinker in his lab: unscrew things, hit stuff with hammers, set things on fire… once he even created a death ray while trying to calm down. It fired a relaxing green laser up to two hundred metres.
    But there was nothing he could have invented that would calm him down today. He hadn’t imagined that the children and the Tin Jimmy would be able to damage his sculptures so badly. He was starting to take it personally, even though the attack had technically been a success.
    â€œYoung people today have no respect! And terrible haircuts. They should be locked up! And then fired into space!”
    Apart from his collection of discarded robot heads, no one was listening, but Mr Finn was shouting all the same.
    â€œ
Months
we’ve been stuck here,” he continued. “Months of searching old offices and abandoned buildings for sigils and any crumpled old bits of paper that might mention Tin Jimmy, the guardians or the river.
And
it’s been raining the entire time!”
    Mr Finn picked up a robot head and looked it straight in the electronic eye.
    â€œI am getting bored of ransacking old buildings, demolishing them and building shiny new offices in their place to cover our tracks. How can I get to the power under the water when I only have one sigil?”
    ***
    Years previously, using a few of James Watt’s old maps, Mr Finn’s dad, Professor Finn, had pinpointed the exact area of the river where the power was supposed to be. At the start of this year, Mr Finn had sent a few of his Waterworx team down there with one of his own inventions, the Seismodulatron, to start exploring the riverbed.
    Mr Finn turned the robot head around and pointed to a big box full of cables and bent metal in the corner of the room.
    â€œThe