Star League 1 Page 2

  ‘So …’ I say, with no idea what I’m going to say next. Luckily a door at the far end of the room opens, saving me from having to finish my sentence. Chantelle sticks her head out.

  ‘Connor Lowe?’ The scruffy boy jumps up and follows Chantelle through the door. The door shuts and I’m left alone with the girl in black, the sick kid, the monkey girl and the still boy.

  I decide maybe it’s best if I don’t try to start a conversation. After all, these guys are my competition. Instead I cross my arms and wait for the moment when they call my name out.

  An hour later all the other kids have gone through and I’m still waiting for my name to be called. Finally the door swings open and Chantelle sticks her head out.

  ‘Ready, Jay?’ She smiles. ‘You’re lucky last.’

  I leap to my feet and follow her in. She closes the door behind me and takes me down a long corridor. We stop in front of another door with a security panel next to it, which Chantelle puts her hand on. A green light scans her handprint and the door hisses open. Pretty tough security for a film set!

  ‘Ben Beaumont is waiting for you,’ she says. ‘Good luck!’

  I step inside and the door closes behind me. When I look around I feel like my eyes are going to pop out of my skull.

  I’m standing in a huge white room so bright it hurts my eyes. White floors, white ceilings, white chairs and tables. The only thing that’s not white is the enormous black screen that takes up the whole side of one wall.

  The screen switches on and my face is plastered all over it. I recognise it straight away as a scene from my latest film, Mutant Island. I’m swinging from vine to vine, while trying to escape a pack of angry mutant monsters that are chasing me below.

  There’s a loud crack as the vine I’ve just grabbed comes loose and I start to fall towards the monsters. But instead of becoming a mutant meal, I land on the shoulders of the tallest mutant and karate chop him on the sides of the neck to knock him unconscious. I leap off him as he falls and start to fight my way through the crowd. Finally I’m face to face with the king mutant: the biggest, scariest-looking one of the lot. I love this part!

  Just as I’m about to trap the king mutant with a lasso I’ve made out of vines, the screen switches off. One of the white chairs swivels around and sitting in it is none other than …

  ‘Ben Beaumont!’ I say. ‘It’s actually you!’

  He looks a bit different than he does on TV, but there’s no mistaking his broad, cheerful face. He sticks out a hand for me to shake. ‘It’s a real honour to finally meet you, Jay! I’m a big fan of your movies.’

  ‘Right back at you!’ I say. ‘Snake City is my favourite movie ever!’

  ‘Thanks!’ he chuckles. ‘Why don’t you take a seat and we’ll get on with this audition.’ I sit down in one of the big white chairs and try not to fidget with excitement.

  ‘Jay, I’ve asked you to this audition because you’re one of the most popular movie stars in the world.’ He looks thoughtful. ‘What do you think makes you so famous?’

  ‘Well, that’s easy,’ I say. ‘People like my movies because I don’t use stunt doubles. I do all the stunts myself.’

  ‘So when you jumped down onto the mutant’s shoulders in Mutant Island, that was all you?’

  I nod. ‘Sure was. I had to do special training on how to land properly so I wouldn’t get a broken ankle.’

  Ben gets out some papers. ‘It says here that you’ve been taught fighting and weapons skills, spying techniques, how to drive cars, motorbikes and just about anything else with wheels, as well as learning how to sail ships and pilot helicopters.’ He shakes his head in amazement. ‘Is there anything you can’t do?’

  I think about how I froze up in the waiting room around a bunch of kids my own age. But I’m not about to tell Ben that. ‘Uh … I’m not great at ballroom dancing.’

  Ben laughs. ‘You must be the busiest kid in the world. You probably don’t have much time for anything outside making movies.’

  Ben is more right than he realises. I’ve been making movies for so long it’s all I know how to do. I’ve never been out with a group of friends or even played a game of basketball unless there was a film crew shooting it as a scene in a movie.

  I’ve always told myself that being too busy for friends is the price you have to pay to be in the movies, and that it didn’t really matter anyway because I had Jefferson.

  But lately he’s been even busier than usual and, while having a million fans is great, it doesn’t help you when you just want to hang out at the shops. Last time I tried that a crowd of people cornered me in the change rooms while I was trying on a pair of jeans.

  I’m so caught up in my own thoughts that I barely notice Ben is still talking.

  ‘Jay, I know you’re here to audition for a part in my next movie, but I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news,’ he sighs. ‘You’re not going to be in any film I’m making.’

  It feels like somebody has punched me in the stomach. My dream of one day being in a Ben Beaumont movie has died before it even began.

  ‘I’ve seen a lot of talented kids here today,’ explains Ben. My mind goes back to the kids in the waiting room, and I wonder which one of them got the part. I bet it was that ninja kid or the monkey girl. No, definitely the scruffy boy. Sure, it might have looked like he had fleas, but that probably made him a better actor.

  ‘But I haven’t even auditioned yet!’ I plead. ‘Was it something I said? If it’s about me being too busy, don’t worry! I’ll put all my other projects on hold. Being in a Ben Beaumont film is the one thing I want more than anything!’ I’m so disappointed I don’t even care how pathetic I sound.

  ‘Please, Jay, let me finish,’ says Ben, holding up one hand. ‘As I was saying, I’ve seen some really talented kids, and out of all of them you’re the most talented.’

  ‘Huh?’ I say. ‘If I’m so talented, why didn’t I get the part?’

  Ben grins. ‘Oh, I didn’t say that. What I said was you’re not going to be in any film I’m making.’

  I stare at him and wonder if maybe the great Ben Beaumont is actually the crazy Ben Beaumont.

  ‘I can see you’re not quite following, so let me show you what I mean.’

  He picks up a remote and points it at the huge screen. An image of a round metal cage comes up. ‘This is our audition room,’ says Ben. ‘What you’ll be watching is happening live in another part of the studio.’

  Chantelle is standing to one side of the cage. She smiles and waves at us.

  ‘I believe you’ve met Chantelle?’ Ben asks.

  I nod. ‘She’s not only a talented producer, she’s also a trained doctor,’ explains Ben.

  ‘Hopefully I won’t need to break out the bandages today!’ she laughs, her voice loud and clear through the speakers.

  ‘Still, better to be safe than sorry.’ What are they talking about? I’ve never been to an audition that needed a doctor before.

  ‘Are the stars ready for their audition?’ Chantelle nods. ‘Then let’s get this show on the road!’

  Ben pushes another button on his remote and a door in the cage wall slides open. Out step the five kids from the waiting room. They look around them like they’re expecting something.

  A hissing sound comes from the centre of the cage where a trapdoor opens up out of the floor. Five more people climb out of the trapdoor … except they’re not people. There’s too much clanking and whirring coming from them for them to be human, and the metal skin is a dead giveaway.

  ‘They’re robots!’ I gasp, and Ben nods.

  ‘They sure are! I got a few sent over special delivery so I could test them out in this audition.’

  I stare back at the screen as the robots start to surround the kids. Their eyes glow red and I can tell that they’re not here to make friends.

  Suddenly I get a cold, sick feeling. What if this is some sort of trap and I’m about to see these kids get beaten to a pulp? I turn to Ben and grab his arm.r />
  ‘Ben, get them out of there! This is wrong, they’re going to get destroyed by those robots!’ I glance back at the window with a sinking feeling as the robots get closer and closer. ‘Please, Ben, there’s still time to stop this!’

  But Ben just sits there grinning as the robots get closer and closer, and all I can do is watch.

  Ben chuckles. ‘It’s okay, Jay, they can take care of themselves. Besides, these are only training robots. They’re programmed to deactivate the moment they’re about to beat their opponent.’

  I sigh in relief. ‘So nobody’s going to get hurt?’

  ‘I think those five will be fine, but I can’t say the same for the training bots!’

  An ear-splitting roar crackles though the speakers. My eyes snap back to the screen just in time to see the scruffy kid turn from a regular boy into some kind of monster.

  He hunches his shoulders as thick brown fur sprouts all over his body. His arms and legs seem to stretch and soon he’s grown to about twice his regular height. His face has transformed into a long muzzle full of pointy white teeth beneath two glinting yellow eyes.

  ‘That’s Connor Lowe,’ says Ben, as calmly as if he’s introducing me to somebody at a party. ‘He can transform into either the wolfboy you see before you or a full wolf.’

  ‘So you’re telling me he’s a werewolf? Impossible!’ But I can’t deny what I’m seeing.

  Connor swings around and smacks a robot squarely on the chest, sending bits of metal flying everywhere. He throws his head back and lets out a loud howl.

  ‘Whoa,’ I say, ‘impressive!’ One down, four to go.

  Out of the corner of my eye I see a black blur. I turn my head just in time to see the ninja girl leap high in the air and land gently on another robot’s shoulders. She kicks it sharply in the neck and its red eyes blink out as it powers down.

  ‘Asuka Kuro,’ explains Ben. ‘She’s one of the youngest ninjas in the world. Like you, Jay, being the youngest certainly hasn’t stopped her from being the best, but it’s not just her age that makes Asuka special. Even among ninjas she’s extra powerful thanks to her super-enhanced reflexes and senses.’

  I turn to see the sick-looking kid and another robot square off. The robot’s hand snakes out and grabs the boy’s arm in an iron grip. That’s when he falls apart, and I don’t mean he starts crying – his arm falls off! The robot drops his arm on the ground. I look at Ben, ready to shout at him to call an ambulance, but he just grins.

  ‘Roger Romero is a zombie. He can detach and reattach his limbs. He’s also got a handy store of potions.’ As I watch, Roger picks up his arm and pops it back into its socket. Then he reaches into his satchel and pulls out a vial of glowing green liquid. He throws it at the robot and the liquid hisses as it eats away at the metal. The robot spasms and falls down, deactivated.

  Ben points to the girl with red hair and freckles. The monkey is perched on her shoulder, its brown eyes alert and unblinking as a robot jerks towards them. ‘That is Leigh Faunus, and her furry friend there is Chu, a Capuchin monkey.’

  ‘Let me guess,’ I interrupt, ‘it’s some sort of radioactive monkey whose bite can stop a robot?’

  ‘Not quite,’ says Ben with a mysterious smirk. I turn back and watch as Leigh closes her eyes and drops to her knees, placing one hand on the metal floor. There’s a low rumbling beneath my feet as though the whole place is going to collapse.

  A hundred small furry creatures burst up through the trapdoor and swarm the robot. It takes me a second to realise that the furry things are actually rats! They’ve completely covered the robot and are crunching it into scrap metal.

  ‘Who knew that the studio had such a bad rat problem?’ mutters Ben to himself. ‘Leigh is an animancer.’

  ‘An ani-who?’

  ‘It means she has a close bond with animals. So close, in fact, that she can read their minds and speak to them. As you can see, they usually listen.’

  There’s just one robot left and the weirdly normal-looking kid is staring it down.

  ‘That’s Sam,’ murmurs Ben.

  ‘Just Sam?’ I ask.

  Something flickers out the corner of my eye, and when I turn back I see Sam’s perfectly groomed appearance disappear. He almost looks like he did a moment ago, except for a couple of major differences: his skin is made out of metal and his eyes are round, glowing lights.

  ‘He’s a robot!’

  Ben nods. ‘The human disguise you saw before was just a holographic projection called Holoskin. S.A.M. stands for Synthetic Artificial Machine. He was an early experiment made by Professor Pestilence, who wanted to use him for evil. But the professor made Sam too human-like. He found he could think for himself and didn’t have to follow the professor’s orders, so he decided to escape and come to us for help.’

  The training robot clanks closer until it’s so close Sam could reach out and touch it, which is exactly what he does.

  He reaches out with one hand and places it on the robot’s chest. There’s a loud grinding sound and the robot powers down like somebody’s flicked the off-switch.

  I look around and realise that all the robots have been deactivated. Ben claps his hands. ‘Great job, everyone! You’re all very talented and I’m sure you’re going to make a great team. There’s just one more person left to meet. Let me introduce you all to Jay Casey, your new leader!’

  I stare at Ben, my mouth hanging open in surprise.

  ‘What do you mean, leader?’ I ask.

  ‘I know this may come as a shock to you, Jay, but I don’t just make movies,’ explains Ben. ‘I’m also part of a world-wide organisation known as GALACTIC.’

  ‘GALACTIC?’ I ask. ‘I’ve never heard of it.’

  ‘I’m not surprised!’ he says with a grin. ‘It’s a secret organisation. It stands for General Anti-Lawbreaker Association Committed To Immobilising Criminals. It’s a society that has been set up to fight crime.’

  Ben turns to tap away at a computer and a photo of a man flashes up on screen. I recognise the pale skin and bulging eyes straight away. ‘That’s Professor Pestilence!’

  Ben nods. ‘That’s right, and he’s just one of the criminals GALACTIC has in its sights. That’s why we need your help. I’ve been given the top-secret task of assembling a team of experts to help bring down Pestilence and others like him. Jay, I want you to lead that team.’

  ‘So let me get this straight, you want me to lead a werewolf, a ninja, a zombie, an animancer and a robot?’ Ben nods like that’s the most normal thing in the world. ‘Are you crazy? What would I know about leading any of them?’

  ‘More than you’d think,’ says Ben. ‘You’re already an excellent fighter because of all the stunt training you’ve done for your films. Plus you’re a famous movie star, which means you’ve got access to a lot of places others don’t. But most importantly, we’ve chosen you to lead because you’ve got a talent for putting things together, like pieces of a puzzle.’

  I scratch my head. ‘I don’t know what you mean, I haven’t done a puzzle for ages.’

  ‘Let me ask you this,’ says Ben. ‘When you’re about to shoot a scene where you save a baby from a burning building, whilel trying to capture a famous jewel thief andd avvoid ending up getting toasted likee a marshmmallow, wwho tells you what to do?’

  I think about it for a second. ‘Nobody, I guess. I just remember all my different training techniques, like using a clothesline as a flying fox to get into the building, or my fighting moves to defend myself against the bad guys.’

  ‘Exactly!’ shouts Ben, clapping his hands. ‘You have split-second reflexes that let you look at any situation and decide the best way to come out on top. As the leader, it would be your job to organise the others to work as one unstoppable team.’

  ‘But …’

  ‘But what?’

  How can I tell Ben what I’m really thinking? That I’ve never spent any time with kids my own age? I couldn’t even say hello to them in the waiting room, s
o how am I supposed to be their leader?

  I stare up at the five kids who Ben is asking me to lead in a fight against an evil genius like Professor Pestilence and I’m completely tongue-tied.

  ‘I can see you’re a bit undecided. Would you like some time to consider?’ I nod, speechless. Ben looks at his watch. ‘Okay, but GALACTIC needs its answer soon if we’re going to be able to stop Professor Pestilence. You’ve got one hour to decide.’

  I leave Beaumont Studios with my head down. My mind is going over and over what just happened and the decision I’m going to have to make.

  A black car pulls up to me as I leave the building and the driver’s window rolls down.

  ‘There’s a call for you on the monitor in the back,’ says the driver. I don’t recognise him as one of the regular drivers, but that’s no big surprise. There are always so many people doing so many different things on a movie set that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

  I peer inside and see Jefferson’s face on a screen built into the back of a seat. That’s weird, why didn’t he just call me on my mobile? Maybe there’s something wrong with my phone, which I guess would explain why I couldn’t get through to him earlier. I shrug and climb into the back seat.

  ‘Jefferson, I’m really sorry about what I said before. I know how hard you have to work to be my agent.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, Jay,’ says Jefferson from the screen. There’s something not quite right about his voice.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘Fine, fine,’ he says quickly. ‘Tell me about your audition.’

  ‘You’ll never believe what happened! The audition was actually for a top-secret crime-fighting group. Its members are these absolutely amazing kids and Ben Beaumont wants me to lead them!’

  Jefferson doesn’t say anything. I guess he’s as stunned as I am. ‘You should see them, Jefferson! One girl can control animals with her mind. And there was a werewolf!’

  I glance at my watch. ‘I’ve only got an hour to decide whether or not I want to lead them.’