explosion downstairs that shook the house.
“Crap.” He flung a toy army truck away and jumped to the closet where clothes spilled out. He churned through the clothes, murmuring, “Where are some pants?”
Three second later, he pulled out a pair of shorts so torn up that he had to wonder what animal had attacked his alter ego.
“These will have to do,” he said after a moment’s hesitation. After yanking them on, he grabbed a shirt and started to pull it over his head… and then he paused.
“Phew!” he exclaimed, wrinkling his nose. “Where’d this come from, the sewer?” Unfortunately, he could hear his nemesis clomping up the stairs, meaning he didn’t have time to look for another shirt, so he pulled it on. He gagged at the smell but valiantly tried to ignore it. He turned to the door just as it cracked into tiny pieces and shot away.
“Are you dressed?” the doctor demanded from the demolished doorway, his eyes shut.
Ignoring the doctor’s inquiry, Superkid rushed over, grabbed the gun, and elbowed Red right under his ribcage.
Red made an odd gasping noise that sounded like “Ah-boof!” and doubled over, using his elbows to clutch his inflicted stomach. He kept his hands firmly gripped on his gun as the hero tried to wrestle it from him.
“All right,” the bad guy gasped angrily, “no more Mister Nice-Guy.” He jerked the gun upwards from Superkid’s grasp. In doing so, he accidentally pulled the trigger. The beam struck the top frame of the doorway and it turned purple. Superkid jumped backwards, tripping over the pile of clothes he had tossed. Fortunately, he had managed to escape the volley of wood chips that came from the doorframe. Dr. Red wasn’t so lucky. He had looked up when he fired and so got a full face of slivers—so full in fact that he looked like a roaring mutant porcupine. And on top of that, the side frames fell on top of him, sending him sprawling into the room.
“Playtime’s over, Doc,” Superkid declared as he pushed himself to his feet and reached for the gun.
Playtime had been over for the doc before then and he was feeling murderous. With a roar of rage, he pushed himself up and swung the heavy gun like a bat, cracking Superkid in the face. Our hero collapsed. The doctor stumbled from the momentum of his swing, accidentally pulling the trigger.
The beam buzzed over Superkid’s head and hit the closet door that he had left ajar. It turned purple and then cracked into pieces—leaving the mirror that had been hanging on it without any support now—and launched at the evil porcupine-faced doctor. He turned his back to it, flaring out his coat, which helped to minimize their impact. Still, there were a few that were now digging into his back, exacerbating his fury even more.
“TIME TO DIE!” He aimed his gun at the diminutive hero.
The diminutive hero immediately threw a shirt at him and then crawled away as fast as he could. The doctor blasted the shirt and then punched through the resulting projectile. He aimed his gun again only to find another shirt flying at him. He blasted that and then found a pair of pants heading his way and he blasted that.
Superkid finally reached the mirror that had broken when it had fallen off the blasted closet door. He grabbed a piece and raised it in front of him like a shield.
The malicious doctor aimed instead for his shirt. The shirt exploded and launched toward Dr. Red, leaving an odorous trail behind it that made both the hero and villain gag.
“Where has that thing been?” Dr. Red choked. “The sewers?”
“It was the only thing I could find on such short notice!” Superkid protested while holding his nose. But now he had nothing to protect his skin from being blasted by Red’s weapon. So holding the mirror piece over his chest, he began sidling toward the window.
“Oh no…” the doctor began before he was overtaken by a vicious coughing fit. By the time it had subsided, Superkid was leaning out the window.
“—you don’t,” he finished and pulled the trigger.
Superkid thrust his shield forward. The blue beam bounced back and hit the doctor’s gun instead.
“Nooo!” Dr. Red saw his gun turning purple and hurled it at Superkid. It was inches from hitting the fearless kid’s mirror when the gun shattered and reversed its trajectory. The doctor was forced to dodge and the pieces clattered against Aaron’s desk before embedding themselves in the wall.
Red stared at the pieces in disbelief. “You destroyed my gun.”
Our hero pumped his fist. “Score one for the good guy!”
Dr. Red whirled to face his nemesis and the look on his face would have killed him instantly… if looks could kill, of course. He roared, “You destroyed my gun!” and then charged toward Superkid. Superkid turned to the window and started to climb out, but the evil doctor grabbed his shoulder and yanked him back in. Then he threw the diminutive hero onto the floor. It was fortunate that all of his clothes cushioned him! But before he could get up, the evil doctor grabbed his feet, swung him around, and launched him at the wall. Superkid used his hands to soften the impact but he still hit hard enough to see stars.
Dr. Red marched over for another attack, reaching down for our hero’s legs. Our fearless hero brought in his legs and then kicked the evil doctor in his elbows. The evil doctor stumbled forward and Superkid kicked him in the chest, knocking him onto his hindquarters.
Superkid kicked himself upright and stepped toward his fallen nemesis. With an evil smile he yelled, “Elbow drop!” and threw himself down at his nemesis with his elbow jutting out like a wing.
Dr. Red threw out his hands to stop him, but Superkid’s momentum drove him past the malicious man’s defenses, hitting him just below the ribcage. All the air left the doctor’s lungs in a loud “Oomph!” and he fell onto his back, cushioned by Aaron’s clothes. Superkid then scrambled to his feet and then planted a foot firmly on the evil doctor’s chest. He asked, “Give up?”
Red glared at him and gasped, “Never!”
Superkid shook his head sadly, “Bad guys like you never know when to quit,” and then put more weight onto his foot.
“And snot-noses like you,” gasped the bad guy, “always think they’re so clever and witty when they’re not.”
Superkid’s eyes narrowed. “Okay, now that was just mean.”
The evil doctor made no move to apologize. Just then, a shout came from downstairs, “Superkid! Superkid, where are you?”
“In here! I’ve got Dr. Red right where I want him!”
“Who’s Doctor Red?” asked a second voice.
“He’s that guy who was—AH CRAP!”
Doctor Red had just sucker-punched Superkid in the thigh, causing him to collapse next to the angry doctor. They were now face to face. And what else would the evil doctor do in the face of such opportunity than punch his nemesis’ face? Our hero reeled backward from the pain, landing on that ever-present pile of clothes on the floor. Both a blessing and a curse, for while it did cushion his fall, it also made it difficult for him to find purchase to get back to his feet. That’s how Doctor Red managed to get his diabolical hands on our fearless hero after stomping over. He lifted Superkid by the neck into the air.
“You’ve annoyed me for the last time,” he growled and brought back his fist.
Before the malicious doctor could follow through with his potentially devastating knockout punch, the door slammed open. He whirled around in surprise and spotted two boys gaping up at him.
“Are you Doctor Red?” asked Derrick.
Somewhat nonplussed, Dr. Red answered, “Correct.”
“Oh, you must be who Superkid was talking about,” Darrin said. He looked around the room. “By the way, where is he?” All they could see was the doctor standing with one of his arms behind the door.
“You mean him?” Red asked with a nasty grin as he swung the unfortunate hero from behind the door. Superkid was slowly turning red in the face and kicking his legs feebly.
The two boys gasped. Then Derrick demanded, “Hey! Let him go!”
“Or else what?” the menacing doctor sneered
.
“Or else this!” cried Derrick and slammed into the evil villain as hard as he could. The three of them crashed into (where else?) the pile of clothes. As they all struggled to get to their feet, Darrin—who had been hanging by the doorway—rushed into the room and pulled Superkid and Derrick to their feet. “Come on!” he cried and turned toward the door.
“Oh no you don’t!” cried Dr. Red, grabbing Superkid’s shoe as he was making his escape. The shoe popped off, sending the hero flopping forward and the villain floundering backwards. Darrin and Derrick immediately grabbed their friend’s arms and began to clumsily drag him out the door. Doctor Red rolled onto his stomach and lunged for his nemesis’s leg but missed. So then he chucked the shoe. It clipped Derrick in the ear, who yelped and dropped Superkid’s arm to clutch his ear in pain.
Superkid scrambled to his feet and the evil doctor did the same. Superkid ran out the door with Red in hot pursuit. Red caught up to Superkid, slamming into him like a quarterback and the two of them went tumbling down the stairs like a ball of cartoon characters.
“Come on!” Darrin cried, grabbing Derrick’s uninjured ear and dragging him along, ignoring Derrick’s cries of pain.
Meanwhile, the battling duo had hit the bottom--quite hard too. They would be sporting more than a few bumps on the head by the end of the day. But in defiance of the average person’s pain tolerance, the two continued scuffling. Both were battling to gain the advantage, first