Planet Protectors Book one

Chapter 5: Captain Ireland's return

It was past noon on the summer's day when Séan Burke heard the screams. He was busy on the building site when he was told by the foreman that him and everyone else there had to evacuate. Then he saw it.

A massive albino lizard thing with what looked like tentacles coming from its head came charging down the street towards the site.

"IT'S A GIANT AXOLOTYL. RUN!" a fellow worker shouted.

He had always brought his superhero costume to work in his bag but never expected to ever need it. He ran along with the others with his bag but darted away from them into a portable-potty. When he was sure nobody was left he changed clothes in the blink of an eye, kicked open the door, ran out and bounded the sky.

As he flew up towards the crane at the top of the site he heard people with his super hearing say:

"look, in the sky"

"It's a bird"

"It's a plane"

"No. It's Captain Ireland!"

"That's right" he thought.

He focused in on the axolotl which was still labouring around the streets frightening people.

What I need is to trap this thing so it doesn't hurt anyone. He looked down into the building site which had a large square pit dug out to lay foundations. It'll have to do.

He willed the wind to bring him down to the creature. He landed carefully onto the road behind it and began pushing the winds against it. The oversized axolotl clung onto the road but captain Ireland pushed the wind harder into it.

The thing lost its grip and was dragged toward the building site. It made an odd noise as it continue being pushed by the wind. It reached the edge of the pit and fell in.

Captain Ireland leaped over and walked to the edge. Just as he was about to look down a giant anaconda the size of a lorry shot out of the pit and began slithering away from the pit.

"What the?" Captain Ireland asked himself before looking into the pit to see no sign of the axolotl.

"It's a damn shapeshifter" he said as he jumped up into the air to follow the serpent. He flew along, following the path of destruction and caught the snake as it was squeezing itself around a car and crushing it to pieces.

The snek than threw the car towards a crowd of people running from it. Captain Ireland flew quickly and caught the crushed automobile before setting it down.

The creature then began to morph and change but also grow bigger in size. Its tail shrank back into its body and was replaced by eight hairy legs and its body turned into the abdomen of a tarantula.

It began climbing the nearest building quickly for its size, smashing glass and damaging the building along the way. Captain Ireland looked up to see some madman climbing the same building with suction cups.

He was further up the building than the over-sized arachnid but it was catching up to him. The brown haired climber started cursing and yelling as it approached.

Captain Ireland shot up and flew past the tarantula, catching the man and bringing him safely away from the carnage.

"Enough of this crap, time to fry this spider" Captain Ireland said before summoning dark clouds over the building. They formed into a swirling mass as the tarantula reached the roof of the building.

Captain Ireland brought down his hands and a bolt of lightning leapt from the dark clowds and struck the monster. It tumbled off the side of the building and began falling to the ground.

To his shock the creature began to reform in mid-air and changed into hornet the size of a jet.

"Oh come on" Captain Ireland said as he began flying after the bug.

Its wings flew fast over the city. Just then a red and black jet soared through the sky above them and hooked the insect with a grappling hook on its first try. It dragged it quickly out to the ocean and let go.

The hornet thane began to grow and change even quicker than before. It dropped into the ocean where its shape sprouted multiple tentacles. The water below began to quake as a squid the size of a skyscraper emerged and rose.

It bellowed a roar so loud that people in the next country could probably hear it. The red jet began to open fire on the kraken, going in and flying out again avoiding the thunderous tentacles.

I breathed in and prepared to finish the job. I flew towards the monster with the sky still swirling a dark grey colour. I slammed my fist into the creature and a shower of lightning bolts came down from the sky and struck it all at once.

The shape shifter wailed and moaned as it collapsed into the ocean.

I then heard the jet go down. I didn't know who was in it or even if I had accidentally struck it, but it went down. That was all I remembered before everything went black.

The only thing I remember from when I was unconscious was some guy saying:

"Take him back to headquarters".