reporter asked—just for the record.
Our young hero was about to answer when a high voice shrieked, “AARON PURN! WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?” He jumped and then blinked confusedly at the reporters. “Wha--”
Somebody shoved her way through the crowd until she was standing in front of the kid hero. From the way she had her meaty hands on her large hips and the way her plump face was twisted furiously, we can only conclude that this was our amazing hero’s mother (Yikes!).
“What did you think you were doing?” she repeated as she jerked on his wrist. “You could have been killed!”
“I could have?” Superkid—now Aaron—said in astonishment.
“Yes, you could have!” his mom cried in exasperation. “Where’s your common sense?”
Darrin and Derrick fought their way forward as Aaron blurted in genuine bewilderment, “What was I doing?”
Darrin bellowed before a sound could exit this stern woman’s mouth, “SUPERKID! Wait for us!” He and Derrick finally managed to make it into the circle where Aaron (now Superkid again), his mother, and the reporters stood.
Mrs. Purn glared down at Darrin and Derrick, planting her fists on her hips again. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Uh…” Darrin glanced at the monstrous arachnid. It was still rocking and cursing profusely, so he continued, “Aar—er—he,” Darrin jerked his head to the young hero, “turns into a fearless person when you call him Superkid. And when you call him by his real name, he goes back to his original self.”
Everyone turned to Darrin with confusion written on their faces. Derrick, sensing danger, gave Darrin a fake look of bewilderment. It wasn’t very convincing and it disappeared after Darrin elbowed him in annoyance. Mrs. Purn shook her head. “What?”
“Okay,” Darrin tried again, “Superkid…” he patted his fearless friend on the shoulder, “…fought the spider and remembers the whole thing.”
Superkid shrugged. “So?”
Darrin continued. “Aaron…” once again he patted his now-not-so-fearless friend on the shoulder, “…doesn’t remember the battle at all. He wouldn’t even have been in it if you hadn’t called him Superkid.”
“In other words,” Derrick interrupted, “he has a split personality.”
Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Mrs. Purn shook her head and said, “So you’re saying Aaron is two different people in one?”
“Yes!” Darrin cried in relief that she had caught on.
“And saying his two names will transform him into those two people?”
“Yes!”
Mrs. Purn glanced at Aaron who returned her look with confusion. She asked, “Why?”
Darrin raised his upturned hands. “I don’t know. But we found about this a week ago.”
“And you didn’t tell me?” Mrs. Purn growled.
Darrin gulped. He had hoped he would never have to tell her (Can you really blame him?).
Mrs. Purn’s nostrils flared and she breathed deeply as she tried to keep her cool. She was notorious for having a short temper. And the next few minutes saw why.
“DID IT NEVER OCCUR TO YOU TO TELL ME ABOUT THIS THE SECOND YOU DISCOVERED THIS? DID IT NEVER OCCUR TO YOU THAT THIS MIGHT BE SERIOUS? THAT HE NEEDED MEDICAL ATTENTION? DID YOU THINK YOU COULD CURE HIM YOURSELF? OR MAYBE THAT IT WAS SOMETHING THAT WOULD GO AWAY ON ITS OWN? DO YOU REALIZE HOW IRRESPONSIBLE…”
Boy, did she let him have it! Darrin quailed under the full force of her fury. Derrick didn’t dare to move, hoping that by keeping as still as possible she wouldn’t see him. As for the rest of the people there, they could feel the shockwaves. Even the spider was paralyzed by the effects, its mouth agape.
After perhaps a century or two, her voice exhausted itself and she was left breathing heavily. Darrin by this time had become so tense that it would be quite a while before he could move his little finger again. He would have some company at least because Derrick couldn’t move either.
Aaron was trying to hide in his mother’s blind spot—if she had one. He wasn’t so sure that she did when she suddenly grabbed his arm with a jerk and said, “I’m going to take Aaron to a doctor and have him checked out. In the meantime, I don’t want anyone…” on the crowd she cast her gaze like a death ray (with far more devastating consequences: she made them feel like little schoolchildren), “…to call him by his other name. Is that clear?”
As one they all murmured, “Yes, Mrs. Purn.”
With that, Mrs. Purn marched her son to the car to take him to a doctor who might be able to diagnose and treat his strange split personality.
And thus concludes the story of his first super battle. But despite what Mrs. Purn tried, it certainly wasn’t going to be his last…
Issue # 3: Doctor Red
I’m sure you’ve noticed, but it’s only after the superhero comes along that the supervillains rear their ugly heads to wreak havoc on the world--the mutated giant spider is a case in point. But if you really think about it, if it happened the other way around then the hero would probably never rise up to save the day because there wouldn’t be anything to rise up from! Well I guess there are some that actually do, but stories like that are called dystopias and who really wants to listen to all the griping about the lack of freedom, dismal living conditions, and downtrodden voices, eh?
Now you probably remember that I mentioned Doctor Red before. You know, in the first part of Issue # 1? That’s right. We’re going to be meeting him in this issue.
Previously, in Issue # 2, Superkid had fought a monstrous spider that had been terrorizing Poolington. It hadn’t been too long before our hero brought the gargantuan arachnid onto its back and thus saved the day. Then we met his mother who discovered what was going on and was now trying to find a way to banish Superkid from Aaron’s ego forever.
She wasn’t too successful, unfortunately for her. The doctor that she had taken her son to had studied him for hours and then pronounced that he was suffering from an unusual case of dissociation identity, which Mrs. Purn was furious to learn was simply a medical term for “split personality.” It didn’t help her temper either when she found reporters flocking around her property in an attempt to garner more details about her heroic son and his battle with the mutant spider. She did her best to repel them, using her super temper to threaten to sue if they continued to invade her private property. Nonetheless the media managed to scoop enough dirt from neighbors and friends to write an intriguing story about a fierce giant spider that had been spitting poison, reducing citizens to piles of melted goop, and had been stopped by a brave seven-year-old kid with his super-powered rattle. Some of the more “unbiased” reporters had attempted to find the monstrous arachnid to get its side of the story, but it had already been hauled off in a dump truck to the desert. It wasn’t easy squeezing the monster in there, especially since the crew was trying so hard to keep it helpless on its back!
Without an opinion from the opposite side, the reporters had no choice but to write the story as Superkid being indeed a superhero and the monster indeed a monster and not misunderstood. The story concluded, According to reliable sources, this brave lad, who single-handedly defeated the monster, is known as Superkid. People may now sleep well at night, knowing that this superhero is on the case!
All evil villains beware… a new hero is in town!
“So it seems…” muttered a voice ominously. The owner of the voice carelessly tossed the paper aside where it plopped next to a rusty assortment of nuts and bolts, kicking up a thick plume of dust. Now you’re probably thinking this person was too lazy to clean the house, but actually this person had better things to do with the time than to sweep up. And what sort of person was too involved in pressing matters to be involved in petty activities like tidying up the place?
This person… was the villainous Doctor Red.
The villainous Doctor Red pushed out of the swivel chair, which squeaked loudly, and began pacing. And while he’s pacing, I’ll describe him to you.
He
was a tall man with broad shoulders over which was stretched a white lab coat over a gray shirt and faded blue jeans. He had short brown hair and brown eyes. I know, boring little details. I’ll just skip ahead to the more interesting stuff like the fact that his skin was bright red. Most people when they see his skin assume that he has sunburn. But it wasn’t the sun that gave his skin such a healthy color. It was actually the result of an accident he had with some unusual chemicals. And no, I don’t think his skin color was the reason for his name. He actually claims that the name is an anagram for Really Evil Doctor. Yeah, it’s cheesy, but don’t go telling him that! He can get really testy.
Did he have superpowers? Well no. At least, not any as far as he knew. He did seem to be immune to mild burns—not anything too exciting. What was exciting about him was that he was an inventor. A mad scientist. And now you’re probably putting two and two together.
That’s right. The mutant spider was his creation. To be honest though, it really was an accident. His demonstration in front of the board of directors for the invention company had gone terribly wrong. Wasn’t the first time a thing like that had happened either. His history was a long line of tragic failures. But we won’t get into that. The important thing is that he is Dr. Red and he is an evil villain.
At this moment, steam was building in this evil villain’s head.
“So this… Superkid comes and